ENGLISH LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY

1. ENGLISH LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY LECTURE 1: THE CLASSICS

2. Plato (5th-4th centuries B.C.) • teaching in dialogues (cf. the Socratic method) • art is the representation / imitation of the representations, as our world is only a representation of the eternal Ideas; copy of copies, or, reflection of reflections (see later romanticism and l’art pour l’art; mirrors!)

3. Aristotle (4th c. B.C.) • Plato’s student • founded his own Academy, the Lyceum • a ‘real’ literary critic with scientific approach • highly influential ideas on drama and epic in his Poetics ---

4. Poetics – key concepts • mimesis: poetry, epic, music, and dancing are representations, modes of imitation (1B); it is natural and delightful • drama: represents men ‘doing’, acting (cf. the Greek word, drontas) • hamartia (tragic flaw): essence of the tragic (6A) • pathos (suffering): disastrous ending for the hero • catharsis (purification, clarification)

5. Origin of drama (tragedy vs. comedy) • springtime Feast of Dionysus with plays, merrymaking and procession of goatlike satyrs in 5th c. B.C. in Athens; Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides • tragedy from tragos ode, ‘goat song’ • comedy from komos ode, ‘joyful song’ • in tragedy better, in comedy worse characters than in real life

9. Elements of tragedy • ”Tragedy is a representation of a serious action […] by people acting and not by narration; accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotions”. (CP, 3B) • 6 elements: plot, characters, diction, reasoning, spectacle and song

10. Elements of tragedy 1: plot • ”the soul of tragedy” • ”the structure of incidents” • it has a beginning, a middle and a conclusion; naturally flows in accordance with probability and necessity (4A-B); • it can be simple with single action and complex – in complex the transformation comes about recognition and/or reversal (5B); e.g. in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

11. Elements of tragedy 2 • characters: secondary • diction: ”communication by means of language”;art of speech (see his Rhetoric) • reasoning: theme, thought • spectacle: the appearance of actors on stage • song: the chanting of the verse, the chorus

12. The historian vs. the poet • according to Aristotle, the poet relates things that may happen, while a historian those that have happened (4B) • consequently, poetry is ”more philosophical and more serious” than history as it deals with the universals, not the particulars

13. Horace, Ars Poetica • poet in the Augustan Age, 1st century B.C., Rome • ‘Art of Poetry’ is an epistle • he is the first classicist as he urges the poet to study the Greek models, polishing and refining his verse (copying and perfection!); ”study Greek models night and day” (13A)

15. Horace’s practical pieces of advice • ”let it be what you will, but let it be simple and unified.” (10A) • ”you writers must choose material equal to your powers.” (10B) • be the ending true to the beginning • ”no[r] begin the Trojan war from the twin egg” (in medias res!) 11B

16. Horace on poetry and and the poet • in his work the poet should rely on nature and the Greek models • poetry is divine, the poet has wisdom • ”Poets aim either to do goodor to give pleasure – [..] to say things which are both pleasing and serviceable for life” (14A) – ”dulce et utile” (sweet & useful)

17. Longinus, On the Sublime(1st-2nd centuries A.D.) • sources of sublimity (elevation) in poetry: 1. greatness of thought 2. powerful emotions 3. mastery of style and sensitivity for rhythm 4. original ordering of words and imagery • inspiration and imagination are needed for the individual genius (↔ classicist copying)

18. Roman Rhetoric (1st cent. B.C.-1st cent. A.D.) • literary theorising of great impact in the Middle Ages • Cicero equals rhetoric with poetry in the discussion of figures of speech (De Oratore) • Quintilian in his Institutio Oratoria (12 books) also deals with rhetorical figures and tropes, giving literary examples --- literary criticism?

19. ENGLISH LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY Lecture 2: Medieval vs. Renaissance

20. Medieval vs. Renaissance • Middle Ages: centuries bw. the Fall of Rome (410 AD) and the Renaissance (trecento, 14th cent) • Dark Ages: from 5th century to 11th cent. • Middle ages (proper): 12th-14th centuries • the age of theological and philosophical controversies (St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas on Christianity)

21. System of education in the Middle Ages: the Seven Liberal Arts TRIVIUM: • Grammar • Dialectic / logic • Rhetoric 3 ‘arts’ dealt with texts, pagan poetic works as examples, while the one ‘literature’ necessary to the Christian was the Scriptures (the Bible) QUADRIVIUM • Music • Arithmetic • Geometry • Astronomy

24. The Renaissance • rediscovery / rebirth of the ancient classics of Greece and Rome • ‘intellectual invasion’ of scholars from Constantinople in the 14th-15th centuries • first in the developed Italian trading cities • instead of the obedient moral code of Christianity: ideology of humanism

25. Humanism • pushing the divine scheme of creation, fall and redemption in the back • instead of the focus on heavenly bliss, man’s dignity is put in the centre • emphasis on human knowledge, the body and social welfare • from ‘God’s fallen creature’ → ‘free individual’

28. Sir Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesy (1595) • ‘Renaissance man’ (courtier, soldier, poet, sonneteer, Arcadia, Astrophel and Stella) • his Defence of Poetry, or An Apology for Poetry is the only major work of literary criticism in the English Renaissance • elegant and energetic style with clear argumentation ---

29. The poet (Sidney, Defence of Poesy) • The Romans called the poet ‘prophet’ (vates); the Greeks named him ‘maker’ (from poiein, ‘to make) 16B • the poet builds his works on ”the depth of nature”, he is also a creator – due to ”divine breath”, inspiration (17B) • Aristotle’s mimesis, Horace’s dulce et utile

30. Poetry-philosophy-history • history teaches through concrete examples, philosophy through abstractions, while poetry uses both • humanist credo: ”to know, and by knowledge to lift up the mind from the dungeon of the body to the enjoying his own divine essence” (18B)

31. ”of all sciences […] is our poet the monarch. For he doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way […]” (20A) • ”poetry is of all human learning the most ancient […], he doth not only far pass the historian, but, […] is well nigh comparable to the philosopher” (22A)

32. not fruitful knowledge poetry is ”the ”mother of lies” its sweetness draws the mind to sinful fancies Teaches and moves to virtue (22B) The poet „nothing affirms, therefore never lies.” Contrary, it ”strengthens man’s wit” (23A) Charges against poetry and the defence

33. On Poetry in England • praises Chaucer, Spenser • urges to keep the principle of 3 unities in drama, copying Seneca’s plays – one day, one place, one single action (not Aristotle!) • on versification: English fits for the classical stress-feet metrical system and the modern syllable-counting

34. Sidney’s Conclusion • ”poesy is full of virtue-breeding delightfulness” • Poets are ”first bringers-in of all civility” • ”under the veil of fables, to give us all knowledge, logic, rhetoric, philosophy, natural and moral” (24B) • in love you need a sonnet, in death a good epitaph (25A)

36. Medieval English Literature • Old English Period (428-1100): invasion of the Angles and Saxons; mostly Latin works and folk literature; Beowulf (great epic), Anglo-Saxon Chronicle • Anglo-Norman Period (1100-1350): dominated by Norman-French Culture • Middle English Period (1350-1500): revival of English lit.; religious drama; Chaucer; romances; Bible translation; medieval chronicles

37. Renaissance Period in English Literature (1500-1660) • Early Tudor Age (1500-1557): Surrey’s and Wyatt’s sonnets, More’s Utopia • Elizabethan Age(1558-1603): Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser • Jacobean Age (1603-1625): Shakespeare’s sonnet, Donne’s metaphysical poetry, Ben Jonson’s comedy • Caroline Age (1625-1649): ‘Cavalier Lyricists’ • Commonwealth Interregnum (1649-1660): John Milton