Analogical thinking in the poetry of Josep M. Sala-Valldaura: affection and difference

Abstract

Analogical thinking is a key element in the poetry of Josep M. Sala-Valldaura. If we take it to be a cognitive process of inference, analogical discourse is prototypical of lyricism, given the importance of tropes based on similarity (e.g. metaphor) in lyrical poetry.
However, this article does not propose a rhetorical reading of analogy, which is not analysed as a feature of style, but as a resource that serves to define the poet-world relationship, characterized by dynamism, digression and the chorus. The article describes some peculiarities of analogical thought in the discourse of poetry, traces its manifestations in Sala-Valldaura’s writing, and finally explores the productivity of affective analogy – that is, the establishment of relational correspondences that causes the difference to emerge and generates new ways of interpreting reality – as a transforming element in lyrical discourse.