Hey Guys...
This is week 9's posting that I found on Language, Literature and Desire group two. Yes, our old one. Paul forgot that we are now 2.5. Anyways, here are the questions [ We might as well do them, even though we are in week 11 and if we want to get A's (*wink wink*).
1. How is the Romantic construction of the Sublime reflected in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic construction of the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader?
- You can look here at Blake's Songs, Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, Byron's Manfred and Frankenstein.
Hey Guys
ReplyDeleteI will be analyzing Shelly’s ode to the West Wind according to the Sublime text.
I found it hard to understand ‘The Sublime’ but after a few reads I think I have an idea. Sublime is a term used to criticize art or literature text, to call a work ‘sublime’ is like calling it ‘divine’. “But if a critic uses ‘sublime’ to characterize a work which includes amazement, wonder or awe in virtue of its ambition, scope or a passion which seems to drive it, then this use is not far off that to be found in one of the major works of classical criticism” (Pateman, 2004, 1991). I personally like this quote because I feel it explains what ‘Sublime’ is defined as and what it is expected for a work to be Sublime. Basically a work that represents amazement and shock or if it ‘had touched your heart’ or affected you so much that it would be considered sublime enough.
Sublime work has the power to ‘transport us with wonder’. Pateman also included that sublime passages in literature exert and ‘irresistible’ force. Sublime, basically in conclusion is a word used to criticize literature and whether it able to make you wonder or experience what is just written through imagination. Something like an excitement witnessed when reading literature. In addition, “in greater degrees, the sublime is that which produces terror “(Pateman, 2004, 1991). Another way a work could be sublime is through loosing ourselves and being afraid and in pain. Pateman states that we are drawn to things which cause us pain, indeed terror. These works are characterized to have power to effect loss of control over ourselves. That is why the Sublime is only one of the major works of classical criticism.
I’ll be referring to Shelly’s ode to the West Wind to reflect in Romanticism Reader. Shelly’s ode to the West Wind text uses dramatic words to describe the pain and sorrow of the text. I think the author is trying to create a dramatic scene so that the audiences will be shocked and touched by the construction of the poem. I’m not too sure about this but this is my understanding of what I’ve read.
Happy Holidays Guys :)
References
Pateman, T. (2004, 1991) ‘The Sublime’ in Key Concepts: A Guide to Aesthetics, Criticism and the Arts in Education. London: Falmer Press, pp 169 -171.
Hi Akash,
ReplyDeleteI’m like you finding it hard to fully understand ‘The Sublime’… I’ll try to develop a bit more on what Pateman (2004, 1991) has said about the power of ‘The Sublime’.
According to Pateman (2004, 1991), only artists who have the ability to create ‘grand conceptions’ by utilizing their ‘powerful and inspired emotion qualities’ can accomplish the creation of ‘The Sublime’ power. And with the combination of technique, strong ideas and emotion, these special artists can produce ‘true sublime’ in their works.
‘The Sublime’ not only generates “admiration, reverence and respect” (Pateman, 2004, 1991, p. 193); it also produces terror. And Pateman (2004, 1991) gives two examples of the terror that ‘The Sublime’ creates. The subjective example of terror is the fear of pain and the objective terror is the fear of “vastness (the ocean)…obscurity (which hides the full extent of a danger form us)...” (p. 193) and we are also objectively terrified by “what is powerful, and by what is infinite” (p. 193). He also quotes a saying from Burke (1757):
‘Infinity has a tendency to fill the mind with that sort of delightful horror, which is the most genuine effect, and truest test of the sublime’ (p. 129).
Pateman (2004, 1991) also points out the irony of the human minds; we are programmed from an early age to “seek pleasure and shun pain” (p. 193) but on the other hand we are intrigued and attracted to things that “cause us pain, indeed terror” (p. 193). However, ‘The Sublime’ can create some kind of pleasure, which contains fictional or metaphorical pain.
Albie ^_^
Hey Albie,
ReplyDeleteAfter going through my answer and then reading your's, Im quite clear on what exactly "Sublime" is. It's good to see that our answers are similar in some ways. Show's that we think alike ;).
Have a great Holiday. See you next semester!
Mwah
Akash