LONGINUS—additional materials

LONGINUS—additional materials

Lecture notes by S. Sreekumar

The identity of Longinus (who he was, where and when he lived etc.) is unknown. The famous  treatise On the Sublime is generally credited to him.

On the Sublime

The declared subject of the book is rhetoric but it looks into what constitutes sublimity in literature.

Sublimity in Literature

Before Longinus, it was thought that the function of poetry was to instruct, or to delight or to do both, and the function of prose to persuade.

Longinus

A HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM—HARRY BLAMIERS

UNIT I

S. Sreekumar

This is a part of the summary of the first chapter of the book by Harry Blamiers. The rest of the summary will be published later.  
Longinus

Introduction

The identity of Longinus is not clear. But for modern readers, he is more familiar than Plato, Aristotle or Horace. The tract ‘On the Sublime’ is associated with Longinus, whatever may be his identity.

Longinus lists the ingredients of sublimity thus:

1. Grandeur of thought.

This he considers the ‘concomitant (connected, related) of a great soul’. Longinus quotes examples from Homer to point out that when a great soul is truly inspired, he lays before the reader what could have been conceived only by a man of noble spirit.

HORACE [65 B.C—8 B.C]—Additional materials

HORACE [65 B.C—8 B.C]—Additional materials for research scholars

S. Sreekumar

Introduction

Horace lived in the glorious Augustan Age, named after Octavian Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. The emperor patronized the artists and to this age belong the greatest of the Roman writers—Virgil, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid and Livy. While in poetry, he ranks next only to Virgil, in criticism he alone is the ruling god. At the Renaissance he was classed equal to Aristotle.

Works of Horace

Two books of Satires, Four books of Odes, Ars Poetica

Ars Poetica  was originally known as Epistle to the Pisos. It was Quintilian who gave it the title, Ars Poetica.  This is Horace’s chief critical work. It is a letter in verse offering advice on literary matters to a father and two sons of the name of Piso. The book follows no method or plan. It is very brief in keeping with its epistolary form, covering no more than sixteen pages and less than five hundred lines of verse in the original Latin. Its main topics of discussion are poetry, poetic style, and drama.

Horace--Bharathiar University, M.Phil English

A HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM—HARRY BLAMIERS

UNIT I

S. Sreekumar

This is a part of the summary of the first chapter of the book by Harry Blamiers. The rest of the summary will be published later.  

HORACE (65-8 BC)—Bharathiar University, M.Phil English

Biographical details

·        Not a philosopher like Plato or Aristotle but a poet.

·        Son of a tax-collector and student of Orbilius

·        Studied in Athens. After the Assassination of Julius Caesar, he joined the group of Brutus. When Brutus was defeated at Philipi, he went back to Rome and took a job as a clerk.

·        Became close to his great contemporary, Virgil.

·        Began to enjoy imperial favor of Augustus Caesar^*.

·        His poetic output included satires, odes and epistles

^*The Age of Augustus Caesar was the Golden Age of Roman Literature. During this period, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and Livy produced a body of refined and high quality literature. This literature reflected the confidence of an affluent and stable society.

ARISTOTLE [B.C. 384—322]--Additional materials on Aristotle

ARISTOTLE [B.C. 384—322]

[Additional materials on Aristotle, useful for Research scholars]

Introduction

Aristotle was the most distinguished disciple of Plato. He is believed to have written nearly half a dozen critical treatises, of which only two survive—Poetics and Rhetoric. Poetics deal with the art of poetry and Rhetoric deals with the art of speaking.

Poetics

Poetics is not a mere enunciation of the principles of the poetic art. Its conclusions are firmly rooted in Greek Literature.

ARISTOTLE, Bharathiar University--M.Phil English

A HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM—HARRY BLAMIERS

UNIT I (Bharathiar University--M.Phil English)

S. Sreekumar

This is a part of the summary of the first chapter of the book by Harry Blamiers. The rest of the summary will be published later.  

1. THE CLASSICAL AGE——PLATO, ARISTOTLE, HORACE, LONGINUS

ARISTOTLE

Introduction

Aristotle was the student of Plato and the teacher of Alexander the Great. He established his academy, the Lyceum in Athens. His method of lecture walking up and down earned his school the title, ‘peripatetie’.

“If Plato was the first thinker... (noted) for his commentary on the human influence of imaginative literature, Aristotle was the first thinker to produce a work of literary criticism, the Poetics ...”

The Poetics has influenced literary criticism for more than two thousand years.

FREUD AND LITERATURE--Lionel Trilling

FREUD AND LITERATURE

Lionel Trilling

S. Sreekumar

Trilling was an American literary critic and teacher who brought psychological, sociological, and philosophical methods and insights into criticism. His critical writings include studies of Matthew Arnold (1939) and E.M. Forster (1943), as well as collections of literary essays: The Liberal Imagination (1950), Beyond Culture: Essays on Literature and Learning (1965).

Trilling maintained an interest in Freud and psychoanalysis throughout his career. However he never based his criticism on any one system of thought. His attitude to criticism was similar to that of Matthew Arnold: (the) “disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.” Therefore, Trilling brought a wide range of ideas and positions to his criticism. He always remained loyal, like E. M. Forster, to the tradition of humanistic thought. His goal was to educate and stimulate the enlightened middle classes.

NEW CRITICISM

NEW CRITICISM

Dr. S. Sreekumar

[Please refer to the earlier posts “Orientation of Critical Theories” & ‘Formalistic Approach’.]

Introduction

New Criticism is one of the Objective Theories [see M. H. Abrams in the blog]. Objective theories consider a work of art in isolation from all external references. For example, the theory suggests that one can appreciate ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’ (W. B. Yeats) without going through the biographical details of Yeats. [This will appear to be an extreme position] This theory has been rare in literary criticism. As an all-inclusive approach to poetry, it began to evolve in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

According to the Objective theory a work of Art is a self-sufficient entity. It is autonomous and can exist without any biographical/historical/social assistance. A work of Art is a heterocosm, a world of its own, independent of the world into which we are born.[Remember the fictional worlds created by R. K. Narayan and Thomas Hardy. The worlds (Malgudi & Wessex) pictured in their novels is different from the real world we live in]

PLATO----Additional materials

PLATO [B. C. 427-348]

[Additional materials on Plato—S. Sreekumar]

Plato was the most celebrated disciple of Socrates. He lived during the twilight period of Athenian Art and Literature. The golden Age which saw the creative outpourings of Phidias, Polygnotus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes was on the decline. Drama and Poetry were replaced by philosophy and oratory. Parmenides, Empedocles and Socrates were the chief philosophers and Gorgias, Antiphon, and Lysias were the great orators. The fifth century was the glorious age for creative activity. The fourth was famous for critical inquiry and analysis.

A HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM—HARRY BLAMIERS--Plato

A HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM—HARRY BLAMIERS

UNIT I (Bharathiar University M.Phil course)

S. Sreekumar

This is a part of the summary of the first chapter of the book by Harry Blamiers. The rest of the summary will be published later.  

1. THE CLASSICAL AGE

2. THE MIDDLE AGES

3. THE RENAISSANCE

1. THE CLASSICAL AGE——PLATO, ARISTOTLE, HORACE, LONGINUS,

RHETORIC: CICERO, QUINTILIAN, SENECA, PETRONIUS, MARTIANUS CAPELLA

THE CLASSICAL AGE

Theories propounded in the classical age have maintained their hold on the people for many centuries.

·        In 17^th and 18^th centuries writers and critics were discussing the role of the Ancients in literary practices.

·        In 1789 Thomas Twining published a standard translation of Aristotle’s Poetics,  and terms like ‘imitation’ became once more popular in the literary circles.

·        In 1955, the Hungarian critic Georg Lukacz¹ expounded his arguments in ‘the Ideology of Modernism’ on the basis of ‘the traditional Aristotelian dictum’ that man is a social animal. “the dictum is applicable to all great literature, to Achilles and Werther, Oedipus and Tom Jones, Antigone and Anna Karenina”. ***

Romanticism and Classicism—T. E. Hulme

Romanticism and Classicism—T. E. Hulme

Explanatory notes—S. Sreekumar

T. E. Hulme [Thomas Ernest Hulme (1883-1917)] was a poet and critic who had a notable influence on modernism. He was an aesthetic philosopher and is called the 'father of imagism'. Hulme was greatly influenced by Henri Bergson¹, the French Philosopher. 

The imagists and other avant-garde poets of the period strongly reacted against the vacuity ( blankness) of late- Victorian poetry². Hulme was in the forefront of the reaction against the Victorians. As the secretary of the Poets' Club he got the chance to meet poets like Ezra Pound. Hulme published only 25 poems totaling some 260 lines, but his poems like ‘Autumn’ and ‘City Sunset’ have the distinction of being the first Imagist poems.

Macbeth and the Metaphysics* of Evil-- Wilson Knight--Criticism & Theory

Macbeth and the Metaphysics* of Evil

Wilson Knight

S. Sreekumar—Lecture notes

Wilson Knight (1897–1985)

Wilson Knight, English literary critic and academic is noted for his path-breaking interpretation of Shakespeare’s dramas. He is a myth critic, actor, theatrical director and an outstanding lecturer. Myth and Miracle, The Wheel of Fire, The Imperial Theme, The Starlit Dome, The Crown of Life, The Imperial Theme, The Mutual Flame, and The Golden Labyrinth are his famous works. Knight has dealt with a wide range of subjects— Virgil, Milton, Pope, Byron, British Drama etc. — in his books (nearly 40).  

In his studies of Shakespeare, Knight had rejected traditional areas like source study, character analysis and psychology. He had highlighted the unity in Shakespeare, which according to him is in the poetic use of images and symbols.  He further argues that the ‘spatial’ aspects of the plays are very important. By spatial aspects, Knight means ‘atmosphere’—‘an attempt to see the whole play in space as well as time’.

Knight has set a new benchmark for Shakespeare studies; he has unveiled some features of Shakespeare’s genius that were not appreciated previously. “He has enriched our understanding, not only of Shakespeare, but of literature in general and of human nature”, as one critic points out.

MARXISM --Theory

MARXISM

Lecture notes by S. Sreekumar

1.  Introduction

            Marxism can be defined as a set of theories (mostly political and social), a system of thought and analysis formulated by Karl Marx, a German philosopher ¹ who lived in the nineteenth century.   These theories had tremendous political, social and literary influence during a major part of the twentieth century.  Marxism still retains an aura of past glory though as a political system its future has become bleak after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

            The basic aim of Marxism is to correct the evils of capitalism such as political and economic inequalities in society. This aim it hopes to achieve by overthrowing capitalism and bringing in socialism.

            Marxism is not a simple doctrine as may seem from the above statements. Rather, it is a complicated doctrine with three dimensions in Philosophy, History and Economics.

a. Marxism and Philosophy

          As a movement in Philosophy, Marxism is much indebted to the doctrines of Hegel, Kant and other German philosophers. Based on their theories, Marx evolved a new branch of philosophy called Dialectical Materialism ². According to this, all political / historical events in the world have their base in the conflict of social forces. These social forces originate from man’s material needs.

b. Marxism and History

          Marxism opens a new way called Historical Materialism to understand History. According to this, historical or social changes happen not because of any non-human or super-human force like God or destiny but these changes are caused by man’s material culture. By material culture, Marx means the tools, objects and other materials man use in their daily lives. These tools are also described as “instruments of production”. Marx believes that the modes of production in a society decide its organization into different social groups.

          Marx views capitalism as a mode of production that emerged from medieval feudalism. Like feudalism, capitalism is also an unjust system. Exploitation of the poor and working class is inbuilt in the system. Marx believes that capitalism will collapse because of its internal contradictions. It will give way to socialism and to a higher form of socialism called communism. When communism is achieved all social changes will end and there will be no more injustice in the world.

The Interpreter’s Freud Geoffrey Hartman--Criticism & Theory

The Interpreter’s Freud

Geoffrey Hartman

Introduction

Hartman is professor of English and Comparative Literature at Yale. He is a leading member of the deconstructionist school of criticism. Hartman was not happy with the limitations of New Criticism. Like many American’s of his generation, he responded eagerly to the stimulus of post-structuralist theory, especially the work of Derrida.

His works

Beyond Formalism,                Saving the Text,           The Fate of Reading,               Criticism in the Wilderness

Main Argument of the essay

Ö   Derrida and Lacan speak about the essential instability of language. This is the perpetual sliding of the signified under the signifier or the endless deferral of the determinate meaning.

Ö   The above-mentioned features of the language liberate the critic from the obligation to produce interpretive closure. The critic can explore the potential meaning of a text in a style of semantic free play not basically different from poetic composition.

Ö   In the essay, Hartman suggests that Freud’s analysis of dreams by means of ‘free association’ led him inexorably to the same conclusion: HUMAN COGNITION IS ESSENTIALLY POLYSEMOUS. Paradoxically, Freud believed in the possibility of a ‘scientific discourse of the mind’.

Ö   Hartman demonstrates the paradox through an acute reading of a well-known poem of Wordsworth: ‘A Slumber did my Spirit Seal’. The analysis shows how the deconstructionist reading of the text can reveal new richness of meaning in it.

This essay can be divided into 3 parts[ s.k]

Œ    

Indian Poetics--Theory

Indian Poetics

Introduction

Rasa theory of Bharata—in Vedas,  rasa means sap or essence—experience of the supreme reality. Seers of the Vedas knew about the need for ‘Sahridayatwa’ to understand poetry. Valmiki’s sloka—overpowered by the intense feeling of pathos—karunarasa of Ramayana—kraunca birds.

Bharata lived during the first or second part of the first century B.C. deals with various aspects of dramaturgy. Drama was a much developed art during his times. Gives a proper definition to rasa in his Natyashastra.

Ö  Between Bharata and Anandavardhana –Bhamaha who was more interested in style. He held much respect for alamkara (embellishments). Believed that poetry must inculcate moral feelings.

Ö  Dandin believed that lucidity, sweetness, richness, and grandeur constituted poetry.

Ö  Vamaha—style or ‘riti’ was the soul of poetry.

Ö  Anandavardhana—author of Dhwanyaloka  formulated the rasa theory in categorical terms—rasa cannot be directly expressed—only through ‘dhwani’, rasa gets expressed

Ö  Abhinavagupta was a commentator of Dhwanyaloka.  He wrote Locana and Abhinavabharathi. He believed that the sahridaya realizes rasa which is alaukika—transcendental, ineffable, cannot be experienced. Somewhat like the ‘sublime’ of Longinus.

Ö  Kuntaka, a contemporary of Abhinavagupta believed that vakrokti—a deviation from the ordinary mode of speech constitute the essence of poetry—Vakroktijivita.

Ö  Mahimabhatta—a powerful logician—founder of the ‘anumana’ school—principle of suggestion.

Ö  Kshemendra—auchityavichara—propriety.

Bharata—Natyashastra

Bharata explains samgraha, karika and nirukta (Digest, memorial verse and etymology)

When subjects taught in detail have been compressed and brought together in sastras and their bhasyas we can call it samgraha.

Tension in Poetry by Allen Tate--Theory

Tension in Poetry

 

Allen Tate

 

Lecture notes by S. Sreekumar

 

Allen Tate was a poet, teacher, novelist, and a leading exponent of New Criticism. He was one of the youngest New Critics who belonged to the Southern group of American critics. 

Tate gives importance to the formal qualities of a work of art. 

Reactionary Essays on Poetry, Ideas, and Reason in Madness are his well-known collections of Essays and reviews.  As a new critic, Tate has coined the term ‘tension’ to describe what he calls ‘the common quality’ of ‘good poetry’^@

‘Tension in Poetry’ is taken from Tate`s The Man of Letters in the Modern World, Selected Essays. The essay deals with tension as the life of a poem. It reveals Tate’s view that a good poem is one in which the extension and the intension are in a state of tension. It is a combination of both extensive or denotative and intensive or connotative meanings.    

IMAGISM--Criticism & Theory

                          

IMAGISM

Study Notes by S. Sreekumar

      Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines Imagism as “a movement in poetry advocating free verse and the expression of ideas and emotions through clear precise images".

I   Growth and Development

                Imagism as a literary movement flourished in England and America between 1912 and 1917. Its chief exponents included Ezra Pound, T.E.Hulme, Hilda Doolittle, Richard Aldington and Amy Lowell. But it was Pound who christened the movement as Imagism.  In 1912 he wanted to send some poems written by Hilda Doolittle ('H.D') to Poetry, a magazine edited by Harriet Monroe. Since Hilda Doolittle had not published any poems till that date, Pound felt that it was better for her if she belonged to some particular school of poetry. Therefore, he added to the manuscript the words "H.D Imagiste". That was the origin of the imagist school.  

MARXISM AND LITERATURE-- EDMUND WILSON--Criticism & Theory

MARXISM AND LITERATURE

EDMUND WILSON

Lecture notes for M.Phil scholars—S. Sreekumar

Please read the original for better comprehension

Edmund Wilson was deeply influenced by Marxism. In 1932, he started a work on the Russian Revolution—To the Finland station. When this work was in progress, Wilson became disillusioned with Marxism as it was preached and practised under the dictatorship of Stalin. This disillusionment is reflected in this essay.

Relationship between Art and society (Marxian principles)

è According to Marxism human society in any given country or epoch grows out of the means of production which prevailed at that place and time.

è Out of the relations between society and means of production arose a ‘super structure’.

è This ‘super structure’ is related to higher activities such as politics, law, religion, literature etc.

è These activities showed the mould of social configuration below them.

è  Each was trying to get away from its roots in the social classes and constitute a professional group with its own standards of value which cut across class lines.

è Art of a great period may reach a point of vitality where it can influence the life of the period down to its very economic foundations. Thus the interaction is reciprocal.

STRUCTURALISM AND LITERATURE JONATHAN CULLER

STRUCTURALISM AND LITERATURE

JONATHAN CULLER

This is a summary of the essay purely meant for scholarly purpose

S. Sreekumar

Professor of English at Cornell University. He is a leading exponent of Structuralism, literary theory and criticism. His major works are Literary Theory: A Short Introduction, Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics and Study of Literature, The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature,  On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism,