Making Sense: Ring Construction in the Descriptions of Muscovy by Albert Schlichting and Alessandro Guagnini

• In Event: On the Cusp: Permeable Boundaries between Word and Image in Early Modern Poland-Lithuania and Muscovy

Abstract

The analysis of ring constructions has been introduced into literary science only recently by Mary Douglas, in 2015. However, Douglas sees ring construction as a constitutive for narratives from the beginning of oral narration e.g., in Homer’s epic poems. It has been used to construct narratives ever since.

Ring constructions consist of a series of parallel or chiasmic readings at beginning and end of the text with the central loading or meaning in the middle of the text. My paper gives an introduction into the main construction of ring narratives. At the example of Albert Schlichting’s 1571 description of Muscovy the construction of a ring in 16th ct literature is introduced. Alessandro Guagnini’s 1578 adaption of Schlichting’s text shows that the ring construction was perceived by contemporary readers, that certain parallel readings were shifted, and in this way a new meaning was created within the text.

The visualization of the ring structure in ring images shows the construction of the narrative. Ring construction leads to an understanding of how a text was made, which meaning it was to transport and how this meaning was created by compilation and composition of narrative parts.

Author

• Cornelia Soldat, U of Cologne (Germany)