Five Works of Theory You Should Consider Reading

[Dipanjan Maitra]

Hey Aristotle still rocks! He's routinely cited on any college reading list
on drama and Greek tragedy. May Brother William of Baskerville provide us
with his book on comedy! Was thinking of J. Hillis Miller's take on Abrams
in his 'The Critic as Host'.

On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 5:44 PM, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com
> wrote:

> see Abrams,  http://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/99/6.10.99/Abrams.html
> see Jesus, Sermon on the Mount
> see The Terror of the Tongs (1961)
>
> > It seems that theory has its tongue so far in the cheek that the
> > phrase no longer works for the theorist even when taken with a grain
> > of salt. In other less figurative words, the figure of speech must be
> > taken in its original meaning, as indication of contempt. For whom?
> > For the dear reader him or her self or elves. Or maybe the theorist,
> > so drawn to his mental mirror by the reflexive nature of language, has
> > neglected the salt of the Earth and put a bushell on the lamp of
> > thought so that we ordinary readers can no longer taste the salt on
> > the cheeky tongue of the theorist. Aristotle is a great theorist; his
> > Poetics, though out of flavor with the theorists, who may find
> > Longinus more tastey, are still influential.
> >
> > from Longinus, On the Sublime
> >
> > It is proper to observe that in human life nothing is truly great
> > which is despised by all elevated minds. For example, no man of sense
> > can regard wealth, honour, glory, and power, or any of those things
> > which are surrounded by a great external parade of pomp and
> > circumstance, as the highest blessings, seeing that merely to despise
> > such things is a blessing of no common order: certainly those who
> > possess them are admired much less than those who, having the
> > opportunity to acquire them, through greatness of soul neglect it. Now
> > let us apply this principle to the Sublime in poetry or in prose; let
> > us ask in all cases, is it merely a specious sublimity? is this
> > gorgeous exterior a mere false and clumsy pageant, 12 which if laid
> > open will be found to conceal nothing but emptiness? for if so, a
> > noble mind will scorn instead of admiring it. 2 It is natural to us to
> > feel our souls lifted up by the true Sublime, and conceiving a sort of
> > generous exultation to be filled with joy and pride, as though we had
> > ourselves originated the ideas which we read. 3 If then any work, on
> > being repeatedly submitted to the judgment of an acute and cultivated
> > critic, fails to dispose his mind to lofty ideas; if the thoughts
> > which it suggests do not extend beyond what is actually expressed; and
> > if, the longer you read it, the less you think of it,—there can be
> > here no true sublimity, when the effect is not sustained beyond the
> > mere act of perusal. But when a passage is pregnant in suggestion,
> > when it is hard, nay impossible, to distract the attention from it,
> > and when it takes a strong and lasting hold on the memory, then we may
> > be sure that we have lighted on the true Sublime. 4 In general we may
> > regard those words as truly noble and sublime which always please and
> > please all readers. For when the same book always produces the same
> > impression on all who read it, whatever be the difference in their
> > pursuits, their manner of life, their aspirations, their ages, or
> > their language, such a harmony of opposites gives irresistible
> > authority to their favourable verdict.
>
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