Lyrik und Fiktion(alität)

The present article underlines the fact that my prototypical theory of the lyric is not based on the semantics of speech acts, but on the pragmatics of speech situations and tries to make the concept of ‘fiction of performativity’ more precise. Because of its pragmatic fictionality, lyric discourse is neither “Wirklichkeitsaussage” in the sense of Käte Hamburger, nor does it formulate “assertions about our world” as Jonathan Culler puts it, though some sort of reference to the ‘real world’ as semantic and historically variable strategy is self-evident. ‘Apostrophy’ in its difference to ordinary address is shown to be a specific technique in lyric texts in order to realize the ‘fiction of performativity’. As an example for the systematic and interpretative validity of the proposed theoretical model the first of Rilke’s Duineser Elegien is analyzed in some detail.