A Research On Gaston Bachelard's Elementary Poetics

Prior to working on the Poetics, Bachelard focused on the Philosophy of Science. During this process, he was influenced by the culture of alchemy and Psychoanalysis, who began turning to the field of poetry, and employed Western tradition of "Four element theory" as central rule of human imagination activity. From the Philosophy of Science to change to Poetics, mainly due to the process of plan to liquidate human falsehood, He not only discovered the unreal mode of thinking human generally keep, also realized this pattern of thinking plays a fundamental role in epistemology. So poetic reveries, which condenses the essence of the unreal mode of thinking mental activity is ready with humanism glory for Bachelard.In the beginning of the creation of elementary poetics, Bachelard followed the psychoanalytic method he had used before, and did some innovation on this basis. Four elements theory which has affected the western world for thousands of years has refined by Bachelard. He extracted out the quality of matter and soul from alchemy and astrology respectively, with using them in his poetic research that turn out a remarkable achievement. On this basis, the "Material Imagination", which was proposed by Bachelard, became a visible core to interpret and explain the poetic reveries.Bachelard divided his poetics into four categories, according four elements that fire, water, air and earth, one by one studied and discussed in detail. Four kinds of reveries around its material core, forming a series of psychological complex which is fixed, and also be full of organic and flexible dialectical mental activity, which can reflect the subtle, comprehensive and esoteric features of human imaginational activity. Bachelard's discovery on the human imagination is unprecedented:For the first time, this mental activity that difficult to explain and point out, grasp by Bachelard. His thorough analysis of it is second to none.Influenced by Psychoanalysis, meanwhile Bachelard is also affected by Phenomenology. Thanks to his own free will on Phenomenology, Bachelard's Poetics was increasingly profound, and the imaginational activity increasingly obtained the ontological meaning. As can best embody pure reveries artistic phenomena—Poetry Language—also obtained its supremacy, through the phenomenological perspective. Compared to the Phenomenological Shift Period, the Period of Elementary Poetics reflects more independent phenomenological tendency, therefore, it reflects more golden academic value. The achievement in the Period of Elementary Poetics is a necessary reference to the later theory of Bachelard.