Sublime (literary)
The sublime in literature refers to the use of language and description that excites the senses of the reader to a degree that exceeds the ordinary limits of that individual's capacities.[1]
Origin
The earliest text on the sublime was written sometime in the first or third century AD by the Greek writer (pseudo-)
"Sublimity refers to a certain type of elevated language that strikes its listener with the mighty and irresistible power of a thunderbolt. A sublime passage can be heard again and again with equal pleasure."
Longinus additionally defines the ideal
Burke
Although preceded by John Baillie's 1747 An Essay on the Sublime, most scholars point to
Kant
The literary sublime, as well as the philosophical, aesthetic sublimes, is inherently connected to nature but, as with most literary terms, the sublime evolved alongside literature. More authors began to connect the natural sublime to an internalized emotion of terror. Authors began to see the sublime, with its inherent contradictions (pain and pleasure, terror and awe) as representative of the changing political and cultural climate of the times. They began to incorporate more aspects of the sublime into their literary works as a way of externalizing their inner conflicts. In this way, the sublime particularly appealed to the Romantics.
In English romantic poetry
The fascination with the sublime in Romanticism first began in landscaping; however, Romantic poets soon began experimenting on it as well. But the innovations made to the sublime in landscaping also translated into the poetry of the time. Thus, what Christian Hirschfeld wrote in his Theorie der Gartenkunst (trans. Theory of Gardening, 1779–1780) can be applied to the literary world as well. On the sublime, Hirschfeld argues that man sees his own potential in the grandeur of nature and in the boundless landscapes therein. He also believed that this applied to both man's freedom and lack thereof, and moving from restriction to freedom results in an inner elevation. In this way, the sublime becomes internalized, and "physical grandeur [becomes] transformed into spiritual grandeur". Hirschfeld further believed that the sublime of the nature then becomes a symbol of inner human realities.[8]
So the English Romantics began to view the sublime as referring to a "realm of experience beyond the measurable" that is beyond rational thought, that arises chiefly from the terrors and awe-inspiring natural phenomena.[9]: A54 Others agreed with Kant's definition of the sublime: that it had everything to do with mankind's rational thought and perceptions. But all Romantics agreed that the sublime was something to be studied and contemplated. And in doing so, the Romantics internalized their thoughts of the sublime and attempted to understand it. Although the moment may have been fleeting, the Romantics believed one could find enlightenment in the sublime.
Each of the Romantics had a slightly different interpretation on the sublime.
William Wordsworth
Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
In which the burden of the mystery
In which the heavy and weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened (37-41).[9]: 258
Here Wordsworth expresses that in the mood of the sublime, the burden of the world is lifted. In a lot of these cases, Wordsworth finds the sublime in Nature. He finds the awe in the beautiful forms of nature, but he also finds terror. Wordsworth experiences both aspects of the sublime. However, he does go beyond Burke or Kant's definition of the literary sublime, for his ultimate goal is to find Enlightenment within the sublime.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a poet, critic and scholar, and he was very concerned with the sublime, especially in contrast to the beautiful. Coleridge argues his view best when he says that:
I meet, I find the Beautiful - but I give, contribute or rather attribute the Sublime. No object of the Sense is sublime in itself; but only as far as I make it a symbol of some Idea. The circle is a beautiful figure in itself; it becomes sublime, when I contemplate eternity under that figure.[11]: 21
Therefore, the speaker must contemplate more than just the object itself; it is sublime in its greater context. Now, Coleridge's views on the sublime are unique because Coleridge believed that Nature was only occasionally sublime, that is, only in the sky, the sea and the desert, because those are the only objects in nature that are boundless. For this reason, Coleridge's "
Later aspects
The so-called "second generation" Romantics employed the sublime as well, but as the early Romantics had different interpretations of the literary sublime, so too did Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Keats. In many instances, they reflected the desire for Enlightenment that their predecessor showed, but they also tended to stick closer to the definition of the sublime given by Longinus and Kant. They tended to focus on the terror in the sublime, and the ecstasy found there.[11]: 145
Lasting effects
The literary sublime found in Romantic poetry left a lasting impression on writers for generations. The Victorians may not have used the term sublime, but a similar emotional state can be found within their writings. The Irish poet William Butler Yeats referred to a similar concept of "tragic joy".[12] Sigmund Freud took the literary sublime and examined the psyche behind it, resulting in what he termed "sublimation".[13] Other authors that used the sublime after the Romantic period included Charles Dickens, William Butler Yeats, among many others. The sublime has also been described as a key to understanding the sense of wonder concept in science fiction literature,[14] and in connection with Kenneth Burke's rhetorical aesthetic theory of form.[15]
In early modernist discourse, the urban landscape became an important subject of the sublime. The rise of skyscrapers and large cities became a center of focus of writers, and, although they did focus on some natural aspects, the definition of the sublime took a slight turn. Christophe Den Tandt says that "the moment of sublime terror is always to some extent a social construct".[16] Den Tandt focuses on the politics of the sublime and the issue of legitimacy, discussing if the urban landscape is a form of reality because the city cannot be viewed as a single natural design. Rather, the man made aspects of it make an object of uncertainty and thus, terror and the sublime.[16]
In addition, the feminist movement used their own definition of the sublime in literature. Barbara Claire Freeman believes that the so-called "feminine" sublime does not attempt to dominate and master the feeling of terror that the "masculine" or "dominating" sublime does. Instead, they accept the feeling of rapture and attempt to delve into its "metaphysical" secrets and aspects. Freeman believes that the domestication of the sublime, which is typically associated with femininity, is not the only aspect (and often is not even found) in women's literature.[17]
See also
References
- ISBN 978-1-4408-4201-6.
- ^ "State Dept of English - "The Sublime"".
- ^ Feinstein, Sandy. (Nov 2016) "Milton’s Devilish Sublime", Ben Jonson Journal, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp.149-166, ISSN 1079-3453
- ISBN 978-1-134-75379-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-486-46166-3.
- ^ Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. trans. Abraham Mills. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1856, p. 51.
- ^ Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Judgment. trans. James Creed Meredith. Forgotten Books, 2008, p. 68-75.
- ^ Mortensen, Klaus P. The Time of Unrememberable Being: Wordsworth and The Sublime, 1787-1805. Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1998, p. 36.
- ^ a b Greenblatt, Stephen, Ed. The Norton Anthology of English Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.
- ^ Brennan, Matthew. Wordsworth, Turner and Romantic Landscape. Camden House, 1987, p.52.
- ^ a b c Twitchell, James B. Romantic Horizons: Aspects of the Sublime in English Poetry and Painting, 1770-1850. University of Missouri Press: Columbia, 1983.
- ^ Ramazani, Jahan R. "Yeats: Tragic Joy and the Sublime." Modern Language Association. 104.2 (1989): 163-164
- SUNY Geneseo
- ^ Robu, Cornel "A Key to Science Fiction: the Sublime". Foundation 42 (Spring 1988), p. 21–37.
- ^ Slater, Jarron. "Expectations of Exaltation: Formal Sublimity as a Prolegomenon to Style's Unbounded Future. In Style and the Future of Composition Studies, edited by Paul Butler, Brian Ray, and Star Medzerian Vanguri. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2020. p. 147-159.
- ^ a b Den Tandt, Christophe. The Urban Sublime in American Literary Naturalism University of Illinois Press, 1998, p. 4–8
- ^ Freeman, Barbara Claire. The Feminine Sublime: Gender and Excess in Women's Fiction. University of California Press, 1995, p. 1–4
Further reading
- Clewis, Robert, ed. The Sublime Reader. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.
- Doran, Robert. The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- Stonum, Gary Lee. The Dickinson Sublime. The University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
- Weiskel, Thomas. The Romantic Sublime: Studies in the Structure and Psychology of Transcendence. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
External links
- The Sublime, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Janet Todd, Annie Janowitz & Peter de Bolla (In Our Time, Feb. 12, 2004)