Versatility in Cross-Cultural Variations of Personification.docVIP

Versatility in Cross-Cultural Variations of Personification 　　Abstract 　　Literature was first structured by great figures’ literary and non-literary works that gave birth to the metaphorical conceptualization. The personalities like Dante and Rumi who developed the first social-cultural universality by using personifications – though from two different parts of the world. The power of poetry which can be created in personification is one of the different ways to bring universality of the metaphorical expressions into literature. Although personification is the important part of metaphorical poetry， very few researchers analyzed it. To this end， inspired form Kovecses （2007） classification of metaphoric expressions， it was attempted to analyze Rumi’s Masnavi Ma？navi’s （Spiritual Couplets） first（4003 verses） and second books （3822 verses） in terms of personification along with Dante’s Devine comedy including Inferno and Paradise. Chi-square test was run to find the type， the frequency and significance of the personification’s application in these two poets’ works. Findings revealed significant differences namely， nature and animate personifications in these great works. Finally， it was revealed that poetry could manifest different sociocultural and religious bonds between different societies. 　　Key words： Personification； Conceptualization； Metaphorical expressions 　　INTRODUCTION 　　Literature is an eternal perch of such distinctive figures who led the universality in their amazing works. Among these great personalities， poets’ like Dante’s and Rumi’s emotions， socio-cultural backgrounds and specifically God could be delicately touched in their poems. And though these two magnificent poets were from two sides of the universe but they have been occasionally addressed as indicating intertextual mutual religious thoughts in such works as 慏ivine comedy?and Rumi抯慚asnavi Ma？nvi’ （spiritual couplets） （It is going to be referred as ‘Masnavi’ in the rest of the study）.