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Subject

Philosophy
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The subject is the conscious individual or self, the 'I' of experience. It is the thinking, acting being with agency, distinct from the object of perception.

Detailed Definition
The subject is a central concept in philosophy, from Descartes to phenomenology. In poetry, the subject is often the lyric 'I' or the poem's speaker. Modern poetry has problematized this subject, questioning its unity. Poets explore the fragmentation, construction, and death of the subject. This makes poetry a place to examine personal identity and its limits, giving voice to the complexities of being a self in the world.
Example
Example in poetry:
The "I" who speaks in a lyric poem, like Shakespeare's sonnets, is the subject; A poem that explores the fragmentation of the self, like the poetry of Paul Celan, deconstructs the subject; The persona in a dramatic monologue is a constructed subject; A poem that uses the second person, "you," can implicate the reader as a subject, as in many poems by Frank O'Hara.
Additional Notes
The subject is the conscious individual, the "I" or self, who is the agent of experience and action. In philosophy, it is the thinking being, distinct from the object of perception. In modern thought, from Descartes to phenomenology, the subject is often central. However, this unified, autonomous subject has been radically questioned by poststructuralism and psychoanalysis, which see it as a construction of language and unconscious forces. In poetry, the subject is often the lyric "I" or persona. Modern poetry often explores the fragmentation, construction, and even the "death" of the subject. This makes poetry a place to examine personal identity, its limits, and its complexities.
Also Known As
Self Ego Lyric I Conscious agent
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