Instruction
1.“The beautiful in nature concerns the form of the object, which consists in limitation; the sublime, by contrast, is to be found in a formless object insofar as limitlessness is represented in it, or at its instance, and yet it is also thought as a totality: so that the beautiful seems to be taken as the representation of an indeterminate concept of the understanding, but the sublime as that of a similar concept of reason.” (Immanuel Kant)
In the quotation above is contained Kant’s fundamental notion that:
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3. Experience is the primary and most important, that is, the only source of knowledge
1. Reason refers to our mental work with nonphysical ideas whereas understanding refers to the apprehension and cognition of the sensible world.
2. The beautiful and the sublime are one and the same because reason and understanding are fundamentally the same thing
2.“But if the power of example is so great, as to take possession of the memory by a kind of violence, and produce effects almost without the intervention of the will, care ought to be taken that, when the choice is unrestrained, the best examples only should be exhibited; and that which is likely to operate so strongly, should not be mischievous or uncertain of its effects.” (Samuel Johnson)
Samuel Johnson’s concern for the appropriate use examples in fictional literature is guided by:
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3. The belief that writers should not use exemplary characters because they should not write creative works at all but should only produce nonfiction, journalism, and essay writing
2. The idea that fictional writers should limit themselves to merely imitate the classical authors of ancient Greece and should therefore stick only to the mythological stereotypes found in tragedies
1. A strong sense of the power and responsibility of the writers who should use their talents to correct error and teach good conduct, especially in an era in which the birth of the novel (a genre focused on real life) could corrupt the minds of the readers, particularly the young and the inexperienced
3.“I conclude with what I said at the beginning: to have the sense of creative activity is the great happiness and the great proof of being alive, and it is not denied to criticism to have it; but then criticism must be sincere, simple, flexible, ardent, ever widening its knowledge.” (Matthew Arnold)
Matthew Arnold’s ideas about the role and the function of criticism, as it emerges from the above quotation, are based on the assumption that:
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3. Criticism and literature differ substantially because, while literature is always authentic and sincere, criticism is dishonest and goes as far as misrepresenting the knowledge we can gain from literature as it must be first and foremost focused exclusively on earning its own credibility
1. Literature and criticism are two completely different things and there can be no point of connection between the two
2. Literature and criticism are both activities in which creativity and the playfulness of mind can play a central role given that, in order for the creative mind to write great literature it has first to understand its times
4.“The initial consideration was that of extent. If any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression – for, if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere, and everything like totality is at once destroyed.” (Edgar Allan Poe)
Edgar Allan Poe highlights the importance of the “unity of impression” in a literary work because:
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2. In "The Philosophy of Composition" he outlines a set of rules for achieving a specific effect characterized by beauty, originality, and intense emotion (which he calls denouement) such as the one in his own poem "The Raven"
1. In "The Philosophy of Composition" he outlines a set of rules for creating effective pieces of journalism and nonfiction
3. In "The Philosophy of Composition" he outlines a set of rules for a fine calibration of scene, tone, and suspense for the perfect mystery tale
5.“Books are for the scholar’s idle times. When we can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men’s transcripts of their readings.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Emerson’s rejection of books is based upon:
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3. God is the only guiding light and every form of human experience of life is to be rejected because only the Scriptures contain the truth
1. The old Platonic distrust of the written word and Emerson's preference for oral poetry over every possible form of written literature
2. The idea that we all should experience life directly in order to retrieve an original relationship to the universe without using existing written material as pre-established knowledge
6. “The great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and poetry administers to the effect by acting upon the cause. Poetry enlarges the circumference of the imagination by replenishing it with thoughts of ever new delight, which have the power of attracting and assimilating to their own nature all the other thoughts, and which forms new intervals and interstices whose void forever craves fresh food. Poetry strengthens that faculty which is the organ of the moral nature of man, in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb.” (Percy Bysshe Shelley
The above quotation by Shelley expresses the general Romantic focus on:
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2. The need to keep poetry as an imaginative form of art that deals with beauty as something separate from morality. Poetry must be only about beautiful aspects of the natural world (flowers, astonishing landscapes, visionary worlds, etc.) without involving any kind of abstract thought or idea.
3. The need to reiterate that poetry needs only sensational subjects and, regardless of how powerful is our imagination, we cannot make ordinary objects or events anew by recreating the world in the poetic verse because human beings are prevented from any actual power of creation of any sort.
1. The need to use imagination in order to perceive aspects of the human condition that the exclusive reliance on strict rational understanding would not allow us to capture. Poetry, as a practice involving the use of other elements besides reason, can refine our perceptions and allow us to develop a habit of moral understanding of human life.