As pointed out by Hegel, two distin

As pointed out by Hegel, two distinct phenomena are usually termed “figurativeness”: one is the capability of linguistic forms in a literary work to evoke in the reader frequent, distinct, and qualitatively rich representations (eigentliche Verbildlichung), and the other is the figurative (metaphorical or metonymical) use of words (uneigentliche Verbildlichung), which, we might add, creates a sort of fictional situation. The first phenomenon need not necessarily occur in a literary work (one could enumerate a number of excellent lyrical works which do not fulfill this condition), while the second one, the metaphoric aspect, cannot and need not always be imaginatively realized by the reader: sometimes it is unimaginable; other times—when attempts are made at imagining—it becomes an aesthetic horror, which suggests that it is intended only for conceptual and emotional perception.