poetiikan

Poetiikka, or poetics in Finnish, is a branch of literary studies that examines the theory and principles underpinning poetry and, more broadly, literary language. It investigates how poems make meaning through form and content, including meter, rhythm, imagery, metaphor, diction, voice, and narrative perspective. Poetiikka considers the relationship between form and content, the function of figures of speech, and the role of audience reception.

Historically, poetics has its roots in classical antiquity, with Aristotle's Poetics as a foundational text, complemented by later rhetorical and critical writings such as Horace's Ars Poética. In modern criticism, the field has expanded to formalist, structuralist, and post-structuralist approaches, including narratology, cognitive poetics, and affect theory. Poetiikka today encompasses not only poetry but also the broader theory of literary language, genre, and discourse, and it often intersects with aesthetics and rhetoric.

In practice, poetiikka uses close reading, stylistic analysis, and theoretical frameworks to describe how poems produce effects—sonority, rhythm, ambiguity, and intertextuality—while also exploring the social, historical, and cognitive contexts of poetic production and reception. In Finland, poetiikka is taught and researched as a core part of literary studies, with scholars drawing on international theory as well as national literary traditions. The field continues to evolve with new media, performance, and digital text forms, contributing to an understanding of how poetry functions across cultures and eras.