XII CONGRESSO INTERNACIONAL ABRALIC
Resumo:904-1


Oral (Tema Livre)
904-1THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS: A SUBVERSIVE CODE OF BEING AGAINST
Autores:Isabel Kranz (UE - UNIVERSITAET ERFURT)

Resumo

The language of flowers is assumed to have originated in Turkish harems as a way for women to communicate with their lovers outside the walls of their secluded home. Elements of nature (flowers and their names) are used to encript secret messages. It is thus a rhetoric code invented to bypass official channels. Opposition to the strict social power regime is not expressed in open opposition but rather in a subversive mode. In how far can we think of the language of flowers as a rhetoric of being against? How can its antagonistic nature be reconciled with the basic units of this code – flowers, traditionally metaphors for frailty and beauty? And what is the relevance of this subversive mode for literature, film and culture in the 19th and 20th century?