Reform poetics

For a long time, the Baroque reform poetics was regarded as a comprehensive regulatory system; however, significant gaps in standardization repeatedly emerge in specific instances. These gaps were filled in many areas by theoretical paratexts on poetry, whose high degree of validity in the theoretical discourse of the 17th century is systematically demonstrated in this study. Nevertheless, the poetics of prefaces fails to even remotely compensate for the obvious deficiencies in the system of praecepta. This finding ultimately raises the question of the fundamental significance of poetic norms for Baroque poetic practice. While it often conveys surprisingly open instructions, poetics offers considerable artistic possibilities for development, the importance of which for Baroque poetic understanding has been underestimated until now. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of genre theory.