IV BA ENGLISH

LITERARY CRITICISM

2019 ADMISSION

PREPARED BY

ASST.PROF.JOHN JOSEPH

ASST.PROF.MARY HARITHA PT

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

CPA College of Global of Studies, Puthanathani

LITERARY CRITICISM

COURSE CODE ENG4B06

TITLE OF THE COURSE LITERARY CRITICISM

SEMESTER IN WHICH THE COURSE IS

TO BE TAUGHT 4

NO. OF CREDITS 4

NO. OF CONTACT HOURS 72 hrs (4 hrs per week)

AIM OF THE COURSE:

The course is a comprehensive spectrum of literary criticism of the west and the east, a survey of key movements, writers and concepts. It seeks to introduce the students to the history and principles of literary criticism since Plato and to cultivate in them the philosophical and critical skills with which literature can be appreciated.

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE: a. To have an understanding of important texts and movements in the history of literary criticism. b. To examine how literary criticism shapes literature and culture across centuries. c. To recognize and critique the major arguments underlying critical writings. d. To relate critical perspectives to the history of eastern and western ideas.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

A. COURSE SUMMARY:

Module 1: 12 hrs

Module 2: 24 hrs

Module 3: 18 hrs

Module 4: 6 hrs

Evaluation 12 hrs

Total 72 hrs

B. COURSE DETAILS:

Module 1: Classical Literary Criticism

1. Plato: Concept of Art - Mimesis, His attack on poetry, Moral Concerns of literature, Views on Drama.

2. Aristotle: Poetics - Mimesis, Catharsis, Hamartia - Defence of Poetry -

Definition of Tragedy-Parts of Tragedy, Plot, Tragic Hero, Three

Unities, Comedy, Epic, Poetic style.

3. Horace: Ars Poetica - Definition of art, Views on Poetry and Drama.

4. Longinus: Romanticism, Sublimity in literature – Its sources.

Module 2:A. English Literary Criticism – The Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century

1. Philip Sidney: Apology for Poetry – Reply to Stephen Gosson, The Argumentative Method

2. John Dryden: Neoclassicism – The function of Poetry, Dramatic Poesy, Observations on tragedy,comedy, satire, epic.

3. Dr. Samuel Johnson: Neoclassicism, Biographical Criticism, Historical approach, Observations on Poetry, Drama, Shakespeare, Tragicomedy, Three unities.

B. English Literary Criticism – The Nineteenth Century

1. William Wordsworth: “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” – The Romantic Creed - Difference between Neoclassicism and Romanticism - definition of poetry – poetic diction and language.

2. S. T. Coleridge: Theory of Imagination, Fancy and Imagination, Primary Imagination and Secondary imagination, Poetic Genius.

3. P. B. Shelley: The Defence of Poetry – Concept of Poetry.

4. Mathew Arnold: Classicism - Concept of Culture – the use and function of poetry – Touchstone method – Moralistic criticism – Function of criticism – High seriousness and Grand Style.

Module 3: Literary Criticism – The Twentieth Century

1. T.S. Eliot: “Tradition and Individual Talent” – Historical Sense – Impersonality – Poetic Emotion –Objective Correlative – Dissociation of Sensibility.

2. I. A. Richards: Poetry and Communication, Practical Criticism - The Four Kinds of Meaning – Scientific and Emotive uses of Language.

3. F.R. Leavis: Concept of Literature and Criticism

4. Formalism: Key Features of Formalism - Its Origin, Focus on language, Form, Literariness,

Defamiliarization, Fabula/Syuzet, Motivation.

5. New Criticism: The origin - Close reading and explication - Ambiguity, Paradox, Irony, Tension, Intentional Fallacy and Affective fallacy.

6. Archetypal Criticism: Myth, Archetype, Collective Unconscious, Northrop Frye.

Module 4: Glossary

1. Indian Aesthetics: Rasa, Dhwani, Vyanjana, Alamkara, Thinai.

2. Literary Movements: Classicism, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Humanism, Realism, Naturalism, symbolism.

3. Literary Concepts: Catharsis, Mimesis, Objective Correlative, Ambiguity, Negative Capability.

MODULE 1- : CLASSICAL LITERARY CRITICISM

CLASSICAL AGE

Plato

 Plato’s date of birth is generally recorded as 427 BC.  He was the most celebrated disciple of Socrates.  Plato was not a professed critic of literature.  His chief interest was philosophical investigation.  One of the famous works, The Republic.

His View of Art

 Socrates’s celebrated method ‘dialogic’-a method in which the instructor asked questions to probe disciples and reveals the misunderstandings- this method later adopted by Plato  As literature is an art, like painting, sculpture, and others, what Plato thought of art in general deserves the first consideration.  He did not considered imaginative literature will lead a good society.  It is intimately bound up with what is called his theory of Ideas.  Ideas, he says in The Republic, are the ultimate reality.

His Attack on Poetry

 Charges against poetry-book x of Republic.  The same concern for the good of the individual and the state marks Plato’s pronouncements on poetry.  Judging by these twin standards, he finds more in it to condemn than to approve.  The first ground of his condemnation of it has already been stated above: its incapacity, as an art, to get to the root of things, being concerned with only a semblance of them, twice removed from reality.

Poetic Inspiration

 The poet writes not because he has thought long over what he has to say but because he is ‘inspired’.  Plato says that art being the imitation of the actual is removed from the Truth. It only gives the likeness of a thing in concrete, and the likeness is always less than real. But Plato fails to explain that art also gives something more which is absent in the actual.. Literature is not the exact reproduction of life in all its totality.

 It is the representation of selected events and characters necessary in a coherent action for the realization of the artist’s purpose. He puts an idea of the reality which he perceivess in an object. Artistic creation cannot be fairly criticized on the ground that it is not the creation in concrete terms of things and beings. Thus considered, it does not take us away from the Truth but leads us to the essential reality of life.

The Emotional Appeal of Poetry

 Plato’s next charge against poetry arises from its appeal to the emotions.  Being a product of inspiration, it affects the emotions rather than reason, the heart rather than the intellect.  The function of art is to provide aesthetic delight, communicate experience, express emotions and represent life. It should never be confused with the function of ethics which is simply to teach morality. If an artist succeeds in pleasing us in the aesthetic sense, he is a good artist. If he fails in doing so, he is a bad artist. There is no other criterion to judge his worth. Plato’s charges on needless lamentations and ecstasies at the imaginary events of sorrow and happiness encourage the weaker part of the soul and numb the faculty of reason. These charges are defended by Aristotle in his Theory of Catharsis.

Its Non – Moral Character

 Finally, Plato indicates poetry for its lack of concern with morality.  In its treatment of life it treats both virtue and vice alike, sometimes making the one and sometimes the other triumph indifferently, without regard for moral considerations.  Plato judges poetry now from the educational standpoint, now from the philosophical one and then from the ethical one. But he does not care to consider it from its own unique standpoint. He does not define its aims. He forgets that everything should be judged in terms of its own aims and objectives, its own criteria of merit and demerit.

The Function of Poetry

 This naturally leads Plato to consider the function of poetry. Although it pleases, mere pleasure, he says, cannot be its object.  He cannot conceive of art as divorced from morals.

His Comments on Drama

 All the observation of Plato, given so far, apply equally to dramatic writing which formed a branch of poetry.

 The representations of drama are as much removed from reality, as much product of inspiration, as much emotional in appeal, and as much unconcerned with morality, as those of poetry.  It’s Appeal to Baser Instincts.  Effects of personification.  Tragic and Comic Pleasure.

His Observation on Style

 The first essential of a good speech, he says, is a thorough knowledge of the subject one is to speak on.  He must be sure of what he has to say.  But this alone will not make him a successful speaker.  A speech has to impress the hearers as a written work has to impress the readers.  Secondly, he should know the art of speaking.

The Value of His Criticism

 Plato thought poorly of poetry and drama, he shows himself a discerning critic in both.  Plato was a great moral philosopher and his primary concentration was to induce moral values in the society and to seek the ultimate Truth. So when he examines poetry his tool is rather moral and not aesthetic.  In his very charges against them is contained a thorough insight in to their nature, function, and method.  In his insistence on truth as the test of poetic greatness he shows his awareness of the difference between the truths of poetry and the truths life.  That the poet states not what is but what appears to him; that it is coloured by his own vision, which makes it twice removed from reality.  This, he states, is in the very nature of poetry.  That the poet states not what is but what appears to him; that it is coloured by his own vision, which makes it twice removed from reality.  This, he states, is in the very nature of poetry.

Aristotle

 Aristotle lived from 348 BC to 322 BC.  Aristotle – the most distinguished disciple of Plato – was a critic, scholar, logician and practical philosophe  He is believed to have written nearly half a dozen critical treaties.  He is known for his critical treatises: (i) The Poetics, dealing with art of poetry and (ii) The Rhetoric, art of speaking.

The Plan of poetics

 Poetics is a treatise of fifty pages. With 26 small chapters.it is incomplete and omits some of the important questions. The 26 chapters are divided as : 1 to 4 and 25 - Comedy 5 - A general way to comedy, epic and tragedy 6 to19 - Tragedy 20, 21, 22 - Poetic diction 23 and 24 - Epic poetry 26 - Comparison of Epic poetry and tragedy.

 It gives the impression of being a summary of his lectures to his pupils, written either by them or by himself.  The Poetics  Poetics represents poetry as an art of imitation of mimesis.  Three modes of literary representation: 1. The blend of narrative and dialogue. (The poet alternates his own voice and the voice of the character) 2. Sustained utterance by the single voice of the poet. 3. The poet distributes all his utterance through the voices of his characters.

Observations on tragedy

 Definition of Tragedy: “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in the language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation-catharsis of these and similar emotions.” (Poetics, P.10)

 Six Elements if Tragedy: 1. Plot (the combination of incidents- plot is divided into five acts, and each Act is further divided into several scenes.) 2. Character (what makes us ascribe certain moral qualities to the agents) 3. Thought (Thought means what the characters think or feel during their career in the development of the plot. The thought is expressed through their speeches and dialogues.) 4. Diction – (The verse they speak) 5. Song (the canting of the verse) 6. Spectacle-(The appearance of the actors)  Plot  The soul of the tragedy  Three unities;  1 unity of action (The combination of incidents which are the action of the play, should be one – one story told, which is not to say it has to be about only one person, since characters are not in the centre of the tragedy, but the action itself is. He is against the plurality of action because it weakens the tragic effect.)  2 unity of time (As for the length of the play, Aristotle refers to the magnitude called for, a grandness indeed, but one which can be easily seen in its entirety – in the aspect of length, than, one that can easily be remembered. The ideal time which the fable of a tragedy encompasses is “one period of the sun, or admits but a small variation from this period.’ The Unity of Time limits the supposed action to the duration, roughly, of a single day.)  3 unity of place (According to the Unity of Place, the setting of the play should have one place)

 Simple and complex plot.in simple plot there are no puzzling situation that enter into the complex plot.

 Peripeties- Sudden reversals of fortune.  Anagnorsis- Sudden revelation of concealed or mistaken identities and unravelling mysteries.(Recognition or discovery)  The plot must have a beginning, a middle and an end.  The tragic plot to arouse the emotions of pity and fear in the spectator or the reader.

 Pity means the undeserved sufferings of the hero and fear of the worst that may happen to him.  The change of fortune should be not from bad to good but from good to bad.  The unhappy ending is the only right ending.  A happy ending may p-lease us more but it will not afford the true tragic pleasure-that aroused by the emotions of pity and fear.  The plot finally divisible into two parts; . 1. Complication-tie the events into a tangled knot, the later unties it.it takes a turn to good or ill. It’s a raising action. . 2. Denouement- unravelling or t6he turning point to the end. It’s a falling action. . The perfect tragedy should arranged on the complex pot. . Tragic Hero . The ideal tragic hero, according to Aristotle, should be, in the first place, a man of eminence. The actions of an eminent man would be ‘serious, complete and of a certain magnitude’, as required by Aristotle. . The hero should not only be eminent but also basically a good man, though not absolutely virtuous. The sufferings, fall and death of an absolutely virtuous man would generate feelings of disgust rather than those of ‘terror and compassion’ which a tragic play must produce. . The hero should neither be a villain nor a wicked person for his fall, otherwise his death would please and satisfy our moral sense without generation the feelings of pity, compassion and fear. . The ideal tragic hero should be basically a good man with a minor flaw or tragic trait in his character.

. The characteristics of Tragic Hero According to Aristotle, in a good tragedy, character supports plot. The personal motivation / actions of the characters are intricately involved with the action to such an extent that it leads to arouse pity and fear in the audience. The protagonist / tragic hero of the play should have all the characteristics of a good character. By good character, Aristotle means that they should be:  True to the self  True to type  True to life

 Probable and yet more beautiful than life. . The tragic hero having all the characteristics mentioned above, has, in addition, a few more attributes. In this context Aristotle begins by the following observation,  A good man – coming to bad end. (Its shocking and disturbs faith)  A bad man – coming to good end. (neither moving, nor moral)  A bad man – coming to bad end. (moral, but not moving)  A rather good man – coming to bad end. (an ideal situation) . Hamartia-The literary term hamartia is explained as ‘fatal law’. Hero’s misfortune excites pity because it is out of all proportion to his error of judgement, and his overall goodness excites fear for his doom.

The meaning of catharsis

. Many, have translated Catharsis as ‘purification’, ‘Correction or refinement. But there is strong evidence that Catharsis means, not ‘Purification’, but ‘Purgation’ - a medical term (Aristotle was a son of a Physician.)  Aristotle appears to regard it as a beneficial effect of tragedy that the emotions of pity and fear are aroused, expressed and yet contained in such a way that the spectator is left in a more balanced and disciplined emotional state as a result of the experience

His Observations on Poetry

It’s Nature

 Aristotle first consider the nature of the poetic art.  Following Plato, he calls the poet an imitator, like a painter or any other artist, who imitates one of three objects ‘things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be , or things as they ought to be: in other words, what is past or present, what is commonly believed ,and what is ideal.  The poet’s imitations or pictures of life are not unreal – ‘twice removed from reality’ – as Plato believed.  Poetry is more philosophical and a higher thing than history.  History records particular persons, places, or things.  Poetry infuses a universal appeal into them by stressing what they have in common with all persons, all places, or all things in the same set of circumstances.

It’s Function

 Aristotle says that he envisages pleasure as the end of poetry.

 The very two instincts, of imitation and of harmony and rhythm.  From the Aristotelian and Greek point of view art is an element in the higher life of community; the pleasure it affords is an enduring pleasure, an aesthetic enjoyment which is not divorced from civic ends.

Its Emotional Appeal

 Aristotle also sees, like Plato, that poetry makes an immediate appeal to the emotions.  Taking tragedy as the highest form of poetry, he says that it arouses the emotions of pity and fear.  Pity at the undeserved sufferings of the hero and fear of the worst that may befall him.  The emotions are aroused with a view to their purgation or Catharsis.

Observations on comedy

 Poetry being an imitative art, it can imitate two kinds of action: the noble actions of good men or the mean actions of bad men.  For tragedy bears the same relation to the epic as comedy to the satire.  According to Aristotle, tragedy is superior to the epic.  Tragedy says Aristotle is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude.  Through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of emotions.  Aristotle finds six constituent parts in Tragedy: Plot, Character, Thought, Diction, Song and Spectacle.  The plot being the soul of a tragedy.  It should have, first, unity of action,The unity of time,The unity of place.  The plot may be simple or complex.  In a simple plot there are no puzzling situations that enter into a complex plot.  Peripeteia is generally explained as “ reversal of the situation” and anagnorisis as “recognition” or “discovery”.  Both peripeteia and anagnorisis please because there is the element of surprise in them.  Tragedy aims at exciting pity and fear, its choice of a hero is limited to one whose actions must produce this effect in the spectators.

Observations on Comedy

 The roots of comedy lie deep in satirical verse as those of tragedy in epic poetry.

 As tragedy, following its parent forms, epic poetry and the hymns, represents men as nobler than they are, so comedy also following its parent forms, satirical verse and the phallic songs, represents men as worse than they are.  Satire ridicules personalities, comedy ridicules general vices – one, the ‘sinner’ and the other, the ‘sin’.  Comedy shares the generalizing power of poetry.

Observations on the Epic

 Epic is grew out of the old hymns to the gods and songs sung in praise of famous men.  In its nature it resembles tragedy closely but in its form it is different.  It has a complication, a turning point, and a denouement ; and it is either complex or simple, that is, with or without peripeteia and anagnorisis.  It has the same unity of action and produces the same kind of pleasure, that arising from catharsis.  An epic imitates life by narration and not by dramatic action and speech, and it admits of much greater length than tragedy.

Horace: Ars Poetica or The Art of Poetry

 Quintus Horatius Flaccus, also known as Horace.  An outstanding Latin lyric poet and satirist under the emporer Augustus.  He died in 8 B.C.  Ars Poetica  The shift from Greek to Roman.  The Atticists , The Alexandrians and the Nationalistics.  ‘Epistle to the pisos’ which has come to be known as Ars Poetica or Art of Poetry.  Ars Poetica has a three- fold structure: the content of poetry, style of poetry and discussion on poets.

LONGINUS

 Longinus is one of the greatest Greek Critics.  His position is only next to Aristotle.  His ‘On the Sublime’ is an immortal critical document of great worth and significance.  It deals with the principle of sublimity in the world of writing.  He was the first European Critic who emphasised the importance of style.

 He made the use of both the historical and comparative methods in literary criticism.

The Sublime

 Sublimity is that quality, not of persuading the readers or hearers but transporting (morally elevation) them. It was called Hypos, a certain height of eloquence.  The effect of sublime work on the reader or listener is analogous (similar) to the effect of lightening in the sky- a sudden illumination or enlightening.  A sublime work is excellent piece of work. It does not have defects such as bombast, timidity (boring) or turgidity (swelling), frigidity (failure to excite) and puerility (silly)- he calls them false sublime  A true sublime is exalting the soul- it is an echo of a soul.  The sources of the Sublime  1.Grandeur of Thought

 Sublimity is the echo of greatness of soul means the soul stirring quality or work.  The great work reveals the innate power of author’s noble mind and his great imagination.  A Sublime work must not indulge in shallowness or false emotions to attract temporary attraction.  The author must maintain greatness of thought throughout the work. Longinus says that sublimity can be achieved even without arousing ordinary emotions like pity, terror, grief etc.  2.Capacity for Strong Emotion  Strong emotions and intense passion is the gift for the poet.  Grand thought and strong emotion are dovetailed together and it is necessary for the transport of the reader.  3.Appropriate use of Figures  Amplification: Adding everything that is required to the story; filling all the required parts of the subject thusly strengthening it.  Imitation: Longinus says that one of the easy source to add sublimity of the work is to quote the past great writers.  Visualization: the sublime work should be written in such a way that the reader should be able to visualize it.  Figures of speech

 Longinus gives long list of figures of speech that a writer must employ to heighten his work wherever necessary that reader must be carried away by the image or idea.  Moreover, the figures of speech must not look deliberate to the reader it should be as such reader fails to notice it.  Rhetorical Questions, hyperbaton (fallen on the evil days, on evil days fallen) , Asyndeton, Narration should be used in first or second person, Periphrasis (Mother of my Father)  4.Nobility of Diction (Language)

 Words should be selected in such a way that they have desired effect on the readers.  Use of familiar language, forcefully and effectively  Use of metaphors  Use of hyperboles should not look forceful to readers  Use of everyday language to reach out to maximum number of people

 5.Dignity of composition  Effective arrangements of words  Harmony- natural call of persuasion and pleasure to men says Longinus likewise it is also an instrument of high and passionate language. Harmony is capable of seizing not only his ears but his soul as well.  Effective structure of words which will have impact upon the soul and mind of the readers

MODULE II- ENGLISH LITERARY CRITICISM – THE SIXTEENTH TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

PHILIP SYDNEY (1554-1586)  Sidney was an English poet, soldier and a courtier of Queen Elizabeth  Philip Sidney in his Apology for Poetry reacts against the attacks made on poetry by the puritan, Stephen Gosson. To, Sidney, poetry is an art of imitation for specific purpose, it is imitated to teach and delight. According to him, poetry is simply a superior means of communication and its value depends on what is communicated.

 Sir Philip Sidney’55s The Defence of Poesy, also called An Apology for Poetry, is one of the earliest works of English literary criticism. Presented in the format of a speech, as if it were a rhetorical exercise, this treatise responds to contemporary and ancient criticisms of poetry.  In the “Divisions” section, Sidney describes the various kinds of poetry. Divine poetry and philosophical poetry receive little attention, and Sidney directs his focus to the eight main “parts,” or subgenres, of poetry: heroic, lyric, tragic, comic, satiric, iambic, elegiac, and pastoral.

 Stephen Gossen makes charges on poetry which Sidney answers. The charges are: 1. Poetry is the waste of time. 2. Poetry is mother of lies. 3. It is nurse of abuse. 3. Plato had rightly banished the poets from his ideal world.

 Against these charges, Sidney has answered them in the following ways- Poetry is the source of knowledge and a civilizing force, for Sidney. Gossoon attacks on poetry saying that it corrupts the people and it is the waste of time, but Sidney says that no learning is so good as that which teaches and moves to virtue and that nothing can both teach and amuse so much as poetry does. In essay societies, poetry was the main source of education. He remembers ancient Greek society that respected poets. The poets are always to be looked up. So, poetry is not wasted of time.

 To the second charge, Sidney answers that poet does not lie because he never affirms that his fiction is true and can never lie. The poetic truths are ideal and universal. Therefore, poetry cannot be a mother of lies.

 Sidney rejects that poetry is the source of abuses. To him, it is people who abuses poetry, not the vice- versa. Abuses are more nursed by philosophy and history than by poetry, by describing battles, bloodshed, violence etc. On the contrary, poetry helps to maintain morality and peace by avoiding such violence and bloodsheds. Moreover it brings light to knowledge.

 Sidney views that Plato in his Republic wanted to banish the abuse of poetry not the poets. He himself was not free from poetically, which we can find in his dialogues. Plato never says that all poets should be banished. He called for banishing only those poets who are inferior and unable to instruct the children.

 For Sidney, art is the imitation of nature but it is not slavish imitation as Plato views. Rather it is creative imitation. Nature is dull, incomplete and ugly. It is artists who turn dull nature in to golden color. He employs his creative faculty, imagination and style of presentation to decorate the raw materials of nature. For Sidney, art is a speaking picture having spatiotemporal dimension. For Aristotle human action is more important but for Sidney nature is important.

 Artists are to create arts considering the level of readers. The only purpose of art is to teach and delight like the whole tendency of Renaissance. Sidney favours poetic justice that is possible in poet's world where good are rewarded and wicked people are punished.

 Plato's philosophy on 'virtue' is worthless at the battlefield but poet teaches men how to behave under all circumstances. Moral philosophy teaches virtues through abstract examples and history teaches virtues through concrete examples but both are defective.

 Poetry teaches virtue by example as well as by percept (blend of abstract and concrete). The poet creates his own world where he gives only the inspiring things and thus poetry holds its superior position to that of philosophy and history.

 In the poet's golden world, heroes are ideally presented and evils are corrupt. Didactic effect of a poem depends up on the poet's power to move. It depends up on the affective quality of poetry.

 Among the different forms of poetry like lyric, elegy, satire, comedy etc. epic is the best form as it portrays heroic deeds and inspires heroic deeds and inspires people to become courageous and patriotic.

 In this way, Sidney defines all the charges against poetry and stands for the sake of universal and timeless quality of poetry making us know why the poets are universal genius.

 Neoclassicism pervades even the two original literary forms produced by the Augustan Age: the periodical essay (pioneered by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele) and the novel (especially those of Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding). In both prose forms, an elaborate style – resembling that of Cicero, the great Roman orator.  DRYDEN  Dryden opposes Aristotle in believing that the plot is the first of all elements in a play and the basis on which the others are built, he believes that it’s rather the author's language, the diction and thought, that form the basis of a play.

 John Dryden’s essay “An essay on Dramatic Poesy” gives an explicit account of neoclassical theory of art in general.  He defends the classical drama standing on the line of Aristotle, saying that it is an imitation of life, and that it reflects human nature clearly. The essay is written in the form of dialogue concerned to four gentlemen: Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius and Neander. Neander seems to speak for Dryden himself. Eugenius takes the side of the modern English dramatists by criticizing the faults of the classical playwright. Crites defends the ancient, he opposes the use of rhyme in plays and argues that through the moderns excel in science , and the ancient age was the true age of poetry.  He notes that poetry is now held in lower esteem , in an atmosphere of ‘Few good poets and so many severe judges’ , his essential argument is that the ancients were faithful imitators and wise observers of nature which is ‘ill represented in our plays ‘ he states that ‘they have handed down to us a perfect resemblance of her (nature) which we , like ill copiers , neglecting to look on , have rendered monstrous and disfigured’ Lesideius defends the French playwrights and attacks the English tendency to mix genres.  He defines a play as a just and lively image of human nature, representing its passions and humors and the change of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind” A definition that is very different from Aristotle’s; the latter has defined tragedy not as the representation of ‘human nature’ but as the imitation of a serious and complete action. Neander who speaks for Dryden himself, favors the moderns, respects the ancients, and is critical to rigid rules of drama. He defends rhyme if it is in proper place.  He states that this natural gift has to be controlled by techniques; the good writer must know the emotions he is depicting, and he must not get carried away by them in order to remain credible in the eyes of the audience. He also finds subplots as an integral part to enrich a play.  Neoclassicism comprised a return to the classical models, literary styles and values of ancient Greek and Roman authors, but if Dryden is neoclassical, it is in the sense that he acknowledges the classics as having furnished archetypes for drama, but modern writers are at liberty to create their own archetypes and their own literary traditions.  SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709–1784)  Johnson is best remembered for his two-volume Dictionary of the English Language, first published in 1755.  Major works: Lives of the English Poets (1783) and his eight-volume edition of Shakespeare (1765). His most famous poem is The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), He also wrote drama and a fictional work, The History of Rasselas (1759), as well as numerous essays in

periodicals such as the Rambler, the Adventurer, and the Idler. Johnson’s own biography was recorded by his friend James Boswell, who published his celebrated Life of

Samuel Johnson in 1791.  In English literature, neoclassicism is a period of literary history covering the last part of the seventeenth century throughout the eighteenth century; neoclassicism is a movement in literature with its poetic works and a strongly normative and prescriptive doctrine; and also neoclassicism is the creator of a particular trend in poetry, philosophical and satirical.  Johnson’s ‘Preface to Shakespeare’ represents the most masterly piece of literary criticism.  Johnson neglects the merits of other Elizabethans and pays this glowing tribute to Shakespeare. The basis of Johnson’s exaltation of Shakespeare is essentially neoclassic. He does not passively accept the decision of generation after generation. Shakespeare is great because he is a poet not of freaks and whims but of general human nature which “is still the same.” Shakespeare’s “persons act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated, and the whole system of life is continued in motion.”  Johnson is, however, not a strait-jacketed neoclassicist. He admits of an occasional departure even from his pet principles. As he puts it, “there is always an appeal open from criticism to nature.” This also explains Johnson’s plea for poetic justice. He supports the happy ending of King Lear as manoeuvred by Nahum Tate and others. He admits that a play in which the virtuous suffer and the wicked prosper “is a just representation of the common events of human life.” But even then the playwright should preferably show “the final triumph of persecuted virtue,” as that will please the audiences more.  “The Lives of the Poets”: Johnson’s most mature and sustained critical work is The Lives of the Poets originally published as Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, between 1779 and 1781. It was intended to be a series of introductions to the works of the English poets from Cowley and Milton down to Johnson’s contemporaries like Akenside and Gray. As many as fifty-two poets are dealt with. It is characteristic of the work that it deals with only the poets of the neoclassical tradition. As David Daiches says, “for the most part Johnson is dealing with men writing in a tradition he understood and employing the kind of verse for which he had an extremely accurate ear.” Many of the poets dealt with are read by nobody nowadays-•Thomas Yalden, Edmund Smith, William King, James Hammond, and Gillbert West. Only six of the rest-Milton, Dryden, Pope, Thomson, Collins, and Gray—are of real significance today.  In each of the Lives Johnson gives the biographical facts about the poet, his observations on his character, and then a critical assessment of his poetry.

 Johnson’s criticism is of the “judicial” kind. He passes a clear verdict on every poet. He defined, in his Dictionary, a critic as “a man skilled in the art of judging literature; a man able to distinguish the faults and beauties of writing.” Obviously, the emphasis is on judgment and discrimination  Dr. Johnson’s premises as a critic in this work are as essentially neoclassic as in his criticism of Shakespeare. Again, his insistence on the function of poetry-“to instruct by pleasing”-is ubiquitous. All poetry is the work of genius, and genius is “that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates.” Invention, imagination, and judgment are included in genius.  However, most of Johnson’s adverse opinions spring not from his literary and non-literary prejudices but his central point of view regarding the purpose and function of literature.. Take, for instance, his condemnation of Cowley and the entire line of metaphysical poets. His views are in strict accordance with the spirit of his age.  He should maintain a delicate balance between the two. If he adheres to truth too strictly at the cost of liveliness, the odds are that his “representation” will become mechanical as he will usually employ highly traditional diction, idiom, and imagery.  On the contrary, if he strives too much for novelty, it is likely that he will depart considerably from truth and get bogged down in his own whimsies.  In condemning Lycidas, Johnson still shows his sense of the beautiful poetry which Milton has been able to create even with his “schoolboy” similes and images.  This deficiency in appreciating the strictly aesthetic merits of poetry leads Johnson to unfair criticism of Gray and Collins who are often called the precursors of Romanticism.

POETRY AND POETIC DICTION BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

 (1770-1850) is one of the most famous of all English Romantic Poets. He is also known as the nature poet. He started the romantic revival in English poetry with the publication of Lyrical ballads along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth’s most profound poems are about nature and the humble life of people in a rustic (rural) background.  Wordsworth chose these themes because it was easier to portray the true passions of the heart. The essential passions of the heart grow better in pastoral (village/rustic/rural) ambience (environment). In such environment passion grows without restraint (control).The language of the rustic folk is also simpler and straight from the heart. It helps to think and communicate better. The humble village folk live in the lap of nature. They live in close contact with nature and they communicate in simple heart to heart language and are not vain or proud and greedy like the city folk. Their language is simple and at the same time very

profound and philosophical. So Wordsworth chose humble and rustic life as the theme of his poems.  Contemporary poetry according to Wordsworth is soul-less, character-less and uninspiring. It is full of gaudiness (flashy words, showiness and colour) and filled with inane (silly/ridiculous/immature) phrases. Poets mostly use figures of speech just for the sake of using them as adornment or decoration to the poetry and not to elaborate or explain the main theme. The contemporary poets use new words and phrases to show off their word power or vocabulary. Thus the contemporary poets give more importance to the body of the poetry and the attractive ornamentation and beautification rather than adding to the soul of the poetry.  The following are two distinguishing qualities of the poems included in Lyrical ballads.Each of the poems has a worthy cause. Wordsworth had chosen to write about humble and rustic life as the theme of his poems. He had chosen to use the language that is used by ordinary people in their ordinary conversation. The importance given to feelings powers the action and situation in the poems. This was particularly dissimilar from the contemporary poems of the period, which were all engaged in filling poetry with ornamental figures of speeches and ornamentation and decorative style of narration.  Personification is a form of figurative language in which something that is not human is given human characteristics. This is often used to enhance or improve the meaning and beauty of poetry. Wordsworth avoided personification in his poems because his poems represented the language spoken by common people in rustic settings. When moved by feelings even this language will acquire a dignity of its own, removing all kinds of vulgarity of the ordinary life from it. In normal day to day life, people do not use personifications. Hence to keep the style simple and down to earth, Wordsworth avoided personifications in his poetry.

• Prosaism is a form of verbalism in poetry, which degrades poetry into a level which is even lower than that of ordinary prose. Writers are fond of beautifyingtheir poetry using clichés or ordinary usages which take away the quality of poetry and makes it sound very ordinary.

• Wordsworth’s philosophy and style in writing Lyrical ballads/Wordsworth’s criticism of contemporary poetry:

 According to Wordsworth, Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings or emotions recollected in tranquility. When the poet is at ease or peace, the tranquillity gradually disappears and an emotion akin or similar to the one that the poet experienced by the poet’s own self takes over. In this successful mood, the composition of the poem

begins. The emotions makes the mind of the poet to stay in a state of enjoyment. This state of ecstasy/elation/inner happiness helps the poet to transfer the pleasure the he experiences to the reader.

• A poet is a human being speaking to another human being. The poet is the one who is gifted with artistic sensibility, enthusiasm and tenderness, much more than the reader. The poet has more knowledge of the human nature than the reader. The poet feels pleased with his own passions and desires. He enjoys and rejoices in all things than the reader. The poet thus is in a happy frame of mind and he wants to share his happiness and contentment with the reader. The poet by his gift of poesy or the gift of imagination is in a state of mind much higher than ordinary mortals. He can imagine or conjure (do magic) up passions which are far above than produced by even actual events. A poet has great power in expressing what he thinks and feels.

• Wordsworth’s main intention in writing Lyrical ballads was to choose incidents and situations from life of common people from common rustic environment and to describe them in a language used by common people. The poet used the power of poesy or poetry to present ordinary people with ordinary lives in an extra-ordinary light.

S.T.COLERIDGE

 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772- 1834) was a great poet, but he is also a great critic. He is one of the greatest of poet critics that England has ever produced.  Coleridge and William Wordsworth was the founder of the Romantic Movement in England.  His major prose work is Biographia Literaria. 1772-1834  Imagination is the basic and most important creative faculty in a poet and impossible to write a poem without an imagination  Through imagination a poet observes different forms and objects in human life and their nature. So it can be defined more beautifully.  With the help of imagination it melts and spread into a “Sweet Solution”. So it is called “Shaping and unifying power”.  Coleridge imagination was responsible for acts that were truly creative and inventive.  The imagination, on the other hand, was vital and transformative.  Imagination described the “mysterious power” which extracted from such data, hidden ideas and meaning.

 Definition of a poem by Coleridge:  “A poem is that species of composition which is opposed to works of science by proposing for its immediate object pleasure not truth.” A poem according to Coleridge contains the same elements as a prose composition because both using the words. The difference between a poem and a prose composition cannot then lay in the medium for each employs the same medium  Coleridge believes that rhyme and meter are essential in order to memorize what is written and to develop a certain kind of attachment to it by getting the feeling of the words through a particular rhyme or rhythm.  Imagination:  Imagination in its real sense denotes the working of poetic minds upon external objects or objects visible to the eyes. Imaginative process sometimes adds additional properties to an object or sometimes abstracts from it some of its properties. Therefore imagination thus transforms the object into something new. It modifies and even creates new objects.  According to Coleridge imagination has two types: . Primary Imagination . Secondary Imagination  According to him the primary imagination is ‘the living power and prime agent of all human perception’. Primary is perceiving the impression of the outer world through the senses. It is a spontaneous act of the human mind, the image so formed of the outside world unconsciously and involuntarily. It is universal and is possessed by all.  According to him the secondary imagination is the poetic vision, the faculty that the poet has” to idealize and unify”. It is an echo of the former, co- existing with the conscious will. It works upon the raw materials that are sensations and impressions supplied the primary imagination. It is the secondary imagination which makes any artistic creation possible and root of all poetic activity. It is considered as shaping and modifying power and is called ESSEMPLASTIC IMAGINATION.  Coleridge calls Secondary imagination a magical power, it fuses various faculties of human soul, will, emotion, intellect, perception. It fuses internal and external, the subjective and objective.  The primary and secondary imaginations do not differ from each other in kind. The difference between them is one of degree. The secondary imagination is more active, more conscious than the primary one. The primary imagination is universal while secondary is a peculiar privilege enjoyed by the artist. The significance of the imagination for Coleridge was that it represented the sole faculty within man that was

able to achieve the romantic ambition of reuniting the subject and the object, the world of the self and the world of the nature. For him, the most important aspect of the imagination was that it was active to the highest degree.  Fancy:  Coleridge regards fancy to be the inferior of imagination. It is according to him a creative power. It only combines different things into different shapes, not like imagination to fuse them into one. According to him, it is the process of bringing together images dissimilar in the main, by source.

PB SHELLEY (1792-1822)

 Percy Bysshe Shelley was born at Sussex, England. He attended Eton and Oxford, where he was expelled for writing a pamphlet championing atheism.  Shelley married twice before he drowned in a sailing accident in Italy at the age of 29.  Among Shelley’s closest friends were the other famous Romantic poets of the day, among them John Keats, whose death inspired Shelley’s “Adonais,” and Lord Byron.  His important works: Zastrozzi(first publication-1810),The necessity of Atheism(1811),Queen Mab:A Philosophical Poem(1813) "Ozymandias" (1818), "Ode to the West Wind" (1819), "To a Skylark" (1820), and the political ballad “The Mask of Anarchy” (1819). His other major works include the verse drama The Cenci (1819) and long poems such as Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (1815), Julian and Maddalo (1819), Adonais (1821), Prometheus Unbound (1820)—widely considered his masterpiece—Hellas (1822), and his final, unfinished work, The Triumph of Life (1822).  In 1820, Thomas Love Peacock published an article entitled "The Four Ages of Poetry," wherein he divided the history of English poetry into four historical categories: an "iron age”,a "golden age," a "silver age" "bronze age" or "second childhood of poetry”. He looked backward in time, and rejected rationalism. Peacock argued that as societies advanced, they necessarily favored reason over poetry and that as a consequence modern poets were inferior. Shelley was incensed by the article and composed his own essay as a retort: "A Defense of Poetry."  Shelley’s “Defence of Poetry” is compared with similarly titled “defenses” of poetry. Shelley’s essay contains no rules for poetry, or aesthetic judgments of his contemporaries. Instead, Shelley’s philosophical assumptions about poets and poetry can be read as a sort of primer for the Romantic Movement in general.  In this essay Shelley argues that there are two modes of human understanding: the reason and the imagination. Of the two, he claims imagination has the greater value,

as it is imagination and the ability to see connections beyond the rational that allow for empathy and moral growth. Shelley believes it is human nature to draw parallels and find harmonies in the world and that this connection of unconnected things is at the heart of all art and exists in its purest form as poetry.  He defined poetry as “the expression of the imagination”

MATTHEW ARNOLD

 Born on December 24, 1822, Laleham, Middlesex, England—Died April 15, 1888, Liverpool.  The first modern critic of the western world.  He believed critic has a duty to the society.  He made use of the method of comparative analysis of and sociological criticism in general.  English Victorian poet and literary and social critic, noted especially for his classical attacks on the contemporary tastes and manners of the aristocracy, the commercial middle class, and the “Populace.” He became the apostle of “culture” in such works as Culture and Anarchy (1869).  Important works: Empedocles on Etna(1852),Poems(1853),  Important essays of literary criticism: Literature in Dogma (1863), Essays in Criticism 1865), Culture and Anarchy (1869).  He is termed as a first serious critic after Aristotle.  He was highly dissatisfied with poetry of the romantic age.  His concepts of the nature and functions of the poetry are closely associated with classical philosophy of art and literature.  Arnold says the true and right meaning of the words classic and classical is the class of best poetry.  The best poetry cannot be discovered by the flawed historical or personal estimate of the critics.  In Culture and Anarchy, detail his concepts of culture. He defines culture as the study of perfection.  His critique of culture is closely related to his literary.  He puts culture against anarchy which he uses to denote the state of Victorian England. He classifies the English society into Barbarians, the Philistines and the Populace.  Arnold believed that poetry is the religion of future. He designated poetry as the criticism of life. Religion and philosophy would be replaced by poetry.

 Poetry is the combinations of taught and art where imposters or pretenders could not thrive.  Arnold introduce touchstone method in his essay “a study of poetry”.  Arnold comes up with concrete and objective method for discovery of true poetry which is beneficent to humanity. He called it touchstone method a touchstone here is the passages or lines from the works of the masters.  In the essay “The Function of Criticism at The Present Time” he argues that critical power is in no way inferior to create faculty. The elements with which create power works are best ideas are task of creating true and fresh ideas is the responsibility of criticism.  The function of criticism, According to Arnold, is to make it possible that the best poetry is produced.  Regarding poetry and criticism it is responsible to surmise that he was a proponent of moralistic criticism in literature.  Grand style is the term coined by the Arnold, in one of his public lectures to refer to the distinctive style of Homer.

MODULE 3: LITERARY CRITICISM – THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965)  TS Eliot was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English- language Modernist poetry.  Important works: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915) "The Waste Land" (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943). He was also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949).  He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".  He was an outstanding prose writer. His principal critical works include: Tradition and individual talent, Hamlet and his problems, The metaphysical poets(1921),The use of poetry and the use of criticism(1933),Poetry and Drama(1951),On poetry and Poets(1951).  In 1919 appeared his famous essay ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’ in the journal “The Egoist”. it contains all those principles which are the basis of his subsequent

criticism. It is divided into three parts, the essay gives us Eliot’s concept of tradition in the first part, and in the second part is developed his theory of the impersonality of poetry, the third part being a summing up.  Historical Sense: Eliot expresses his notion of 'historical sense' in his revolutionary essay," Tradition and Individual Talent". He thinks that tradition depends on the complete realisation of historical sense. Tradition involves a historical sense which enables a poet to perceive the importance of past and present. The historical sense enables him to realism that the past is not something isolated from the present.  T.S. Eliot, tradition does not mean a blind adherence to the ways of previous generation or generations. This would be mere slavish imitation.  Tradition to Eliot is the classics and other great literature of the past like the metaphysical poetry.This historical sense helps a writer to escape from his personality.  Impersonality: Eliot's impersonal conception of art and his Classicist attitude towards art and poetry is given in his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent. Eliot opposes the Romantic conception by advancing his theory of the impersonality. He says that the process of depersonalisation is the process of art's creativity. Eliot particularly objected to the great Romantics as well as Victorians who exaggerated the need to express the human personality and subjective feeling so much so that poetry in their hands became a kind of self-worship.  Eliot says “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.”  Eliot insists that poetry originates in personal emotion and that the poet’s subjectivity pervades the text.  Eliot compares the mind of the poet to a catalyst and the process of poetic creation to the process of a chemical reaction. The poet’s mind is this platinum, the catalytic agent. The emotions and feelings are sulphur and oxygen. The poet’s mind is necessary for new combinations of emotions and experiences to take place, but it itself does not undergo any change during the process of poetic combination.  This impersonality can be achieved only when the poet acquires a sense of tradition, the historic sense, which makes him conscious, not only of the present, but also of the past and its presence.  Poetic emotion: There is always a difference between the artistic emotion and the personal emotions of the poet. His personal emotions may be simple or crude, but the

emotion of his poetry are complex and refined. He may express ordinary emotions, but he must impart to them a new significance and a new meaning. Even emotions which he has never personally experienced can serve the purpose of poetry.  Eliot compares the poet’s mind to a receptacle in which are stored feelings, emotions in an unorganised and chaotic form till, “all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together.” Just as a chemical reaction takes place under pressure, so also intensity is needed for the fusion of emotions.  In the poetic process, there is only concentration of a number of experiences, and a new thing results from this concentration.  Eliot rejects Romantic subjectivism and Wordsworth’s theory of poetry as emotions recollected in tranquillity. He concludes: “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.”  Objective Correlative: The term ‘objective correlative’ which he first used in his essay on “Hamlet and his Problems”in his first book of criticism  According to Eliot, the poet cannot communicate his emotions directly to the readers; he must find some object or medium suggestive of it to evoke the same emotion in his readers. This ‘objective correlative’ is “a set of objects, a situation, and a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion”so that“ when the external facts are given the emotion is at once evoked.” It is through the objective correlative that the transaction between author and reader necessarily takes place. The reader responds to the object or medium and through that, to the work of art.  For example, in Macbeth the dramatist has to convey the mental agony of Lady Macbeth and he does so in “the sleep-walking scene”, not through direct description, but through an unconscious repetition of her past actions.  Dissociation of Sensibility: The phrases ‘Dissociation of Sensibility’ and ‘Unification of sensibility’, first used in his essay “The Metaphysical Poets” from Homage to John Dryden.  By unification of sensibility, he means, “a fusion of thought and feeling’, “a recreation of thought into feeling’, and “a direct sensuous apprehension of thought”.  Eliot finds such unification of sensibility in the Jacobean dramatists and the Metaphysical poets.  Eliot explains how this fusion of thought and feeling takes place: “A thought to Donne was an experience; it modified his sensibility. When a poet’s mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate experiences.

 Another aspect of this unification of sensibility, is the harmonious working of the creative and critical faculties of a poet. A great poet must of necessity be a great critic as well, for he must constantly analyse, reject and select. Only a poet-critic does criticism proper while others can indulge in creative or historical types of criticism at best.  Bad poetry results when there is, “dissociation of sensibility”, i.e. the poet is unable to feel his thoughts and there is a split between thought and feeling.  According to Eliot, in the late 17th century a dissociation of sensibility set in with the onset of rationalism. The result was a decline in poetic quality.  The influence of Milton and Dryden and Pope who composed their poetry from their wits and not their souls has been particularly harmful in this respect. There are attempts at unification of thought and feeling in Keats and Shelley.  But the Victorian poets fail to transmute ideas into emotions and sensations. There is a sensuous apprehension of thought in good poetry.  Eliot’s concept of “Dissociation of sensibility” has been of far-reaching influence in modern criticism. I A RICHARDS (1893-1979)

 Ivor Armstrong Richards was born in Cheshire and educated at Cambridge University’s Magdalene College.  I.A. Richards was the first critic to bring to English criticism a scientific precision and objectivity. He was the first to distinguish between the two uses of language – the referential and the emotive.  Richards’s scholarly work includes Practical Criticism (1929), The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936), and The Meaning of Meaning (1946, co-authored with C.K. Ogden).  Four kinds of functions or meanings as enlisted by I.A. Richards in his Practical Criticism are: (1) Sense, (2) Feeling, (3) Tone and (4) Intention.  (1) Sense: what we speak to convey to our listeners for their consideration can be called ‘sense’. This is the most important thing in all scientific utterances where verification is possible.  (2) Feeling: The attitude towards what we convey is known as ‘feeling’. In other words, we have bias or accentuation of interest towards what we say. We use language to express these feelings. Similarly, we have these feelings even when we receive. This happens even if the speaker is conscious of it or not. In exceptional cases, say in mathematics, no feeling enters. The speaker’s attitude to the subject is known as ‘feeling’.

 (3) Tone: The speaker has an attitude to his listener. ‘He chooses or arranges his words differently as his audience varies, in automatic or deliberate recognition of his relation to them. The tone of his utterance reflects his awareness of this relation, his sense of how he stands towards those he is addressing. Thus ‘tone’ refers to the attitude to the listener.  (4) Intention: Finally apart from what he says (sense), his attitude to what he is talking about (feeling), and his attitude to his listener (tone), there is the speaker’s intention, his aim (conscious or unconscious) - the effect he is endeavouring to promote. The speaker’s purpose modifies his speech. Frequently, the speaker’s intention operates through and satisfies itself in a combination of other functions. ‘It may govern the stress laid upon points in an argument.  Richard examines, what kind of language poetry uses. According to Richard, there are two uses of language – referential or scientific, and emotive. Referential or scientific is the way of science in using words. It is the usage of words for the sake of the references they promote. Using the word ‘fire’ in this way is no more than a reference to a corresponding object in life. The word faithfully recalls the object. Using words in emotive manner means using them for the sake of attitudes and emotions which ensue. This is the way of poetry. In poetry, the word fire may denote ‘with heart on fire’, where ‘on fire’ means ‘in an excited state’. Instead of recalling the object, the word stands to evoke an emotion.  While science makes statements, poetry makes ‘pseudo-statements’. A statement says something and ‘is justified by its truth’. It can always be verified by a reference to its original, outside it. A pseudo-statement, on the other hand, is only a statement in name. What it says is not literally true. Therefore, in the normal sense of a word, a pseudo- statement says nothing at all. What it apparently says has the larger purpose of evoking an emotion or attitude of mind which the poet considers valuable but for which there are no verbal equivalents. So he adopts this indirect method of evoking it. Poetry speaks not to the mind but to the impulses. Its speech, literal or unilateral, logical or illogical, is faithful to its experience to the extent to which it induces the experience in others.

FORMALISM

 Formalism is a branch of literary criticism and theory that concentrates on the formal or structural features of a text like syntax, grammar and literary device, leaving out its cultural, social and historical context.  Formalism was a natural reaction against the existing norms and concepts literature including the romantic ideals which put the creative faculty of the author on a higher pedestal.  Two distinctive schools of formalism: Russian Formalism and New Criticism.  Russian Formalism: Russian Formalism, a movement of literary criticism and interpretation, emerged in Russia during the second decade of the twentieth century and remained active until about 1930.  Formalist movement consisted of two distinct scholarly groups, both outside the academy: the Moscow Linguistic Circle, which was founded by the linguist Roman Jakobson in 1915 and included Grigorii Vinokur and Petr Bogatyrev, and the Petersburg OPOJAZ (Obščestvo izučenija POètičeskogo JAZyka, “Society for the Study of Poetic Language”), which came into existence a year later and was known for scholars such as Viktor Shklovsky, Iurii Tynianov, Boris Eikhenbaum, Boris Tomashevskii, and Victor Vinogradov.  Literary language is self-reflexive, in that it offers readers a special experience by drawing attention to its “formal devices”, which Roman Jakobson calls “literariness’ — that which makes a given work a literary work. Jan Mukarovsky described literariness as consisting in the “maximum of foregrounding of the utterance”, and the primary aim of such foregrounding, as Shklovsky described in his Art as Technique, is to “estrange or “defamiliarize”.  Defamiliarization: The word defamiliarization was coined by the early 20th-century Russian literary critic Viktor Shklovsky in his essay "Art as Technique."  It refers to the literary device whereby language is used in such a way that ordinary and familiar objects are made to look different. It is a process of transformation where language asserts its power to affect our perception. It is that aspect which differentiates between ordinary usage and poetic usage of language, and imparts a uniqueness to a literary work.  The 'fabula' refers to the chronological order in which the events of a story take place: the timeline, in other words (Story). The 'syuzhet' refers to the sequence in which the author chooses to relate those events, which we could describe as the storyline or the plot.

 Motivation is a concept envisaged by formalist Boris Tomashevsky which is about motifs. A motif is the smallest unit of a plot.  New Criticism (1940-1960): New Criticism is a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.  The term ‘New Criticism’, is introduced by J.E. Spingarn in his booklet The New Criticism in 1911, was made current by John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism (1941), a work that organized the principles of this approach to literature.  Important New Critics included Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, John Crowe Ransom, Cleanth Brooks, William Empson, and F.R. Leavis.  William K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley coined the term “intentional fallacy”; other terms associated with New Criticism include “affective fallacy,” “heresy of paraphrase,” and “ambiguity, Cleanth Brook’s “Paradox”,Robert Penn Warren’s ‘Irony’ are few of them.  Close Reading and Explication: it is a detailed and nuanced examination and interpretation of a text to discover its meanings and to assess its value as a literary work.  Seven Types of Ambiguity: A Study of Its Effects on English Verse, critical work by William Empson, published in 1930 and revised in 1947 and 1953. The book was influential as one of the foundations of the school of literary theory known as New Criticism.  In Seven Types of Ambiguity Empson sought to enhance the reader’s understanding of a poem by isolating the linguistic properties of the text. He suggested that words or references in poems are often ambiguous and, if presented coherently, carry multiple meanings that can enrich the reader’s appreciation of the work.  Paradox: Cleanth Brooks, an active member of the New Critical movement, outlines the use of reading poems through paradox as a method of critical interpretation. Paradox in poetry means that tension at the surface of a verse can lead to apparent contradictions and hypocrisies.  Tension:it is the interaction and consequent balance of different elements in the poem.the term was used by Allen Tate to denote the totality of literal and inner meanings in the poem.  Extension-External meaning  Intension-The metaphorical meaning

 Intentional Fallacy- the term was introduced by W.K. Wimsatt, Jr., and Monroe C. Beardsley in The Verbal Icon (1954),to describe the problem inherent in trying to judge a work of art by assuming the intent or purpose of the artist who created it.  To know the intension of the author as part of evaluation of the text.  Affective Fallacy- This term was first used by Wimsatt and Beardsley.they defined it as an error in criticism of concentrating on the effect of a work of literature on the reader. According to the followers of New Criticism, the misconception that arises from judging a poem by the emotional effect that it produces in the reader.  Archetypal Criticism-It is concerned with the employment of archetypes and myths in literature.  Archetype is a base model of criticism.  The collective unconscious: The collective unconscious is a concept originally defined by psychoanalyst Carl Jung.  The term denotes a common psyche inherited by all human beings by virtue of their membership in human race.  It is distinct from the personal unconscious, which arises from the experience of the individual. According to Jung, the collective unconscious contains archetypes, or universal primordial images and ideas.  According to Jung, the collective unconscious is made up of a collection of knowledge and imagery that every person is born with and is shared by all human beings due to ancestral experience.

Northrop Frye and Archetypal Criticism

 At mid-century, Canadian critic Northrop Frye (1912-91) introduced new distinctions in literary criticism between myth and archetype.

 Northrop Frye developed a theory of literature based on myths and archetypes. He says literature is not reflection of life not expression of personality.  Frye wanted to develop a unifying theory of criticism something like the Darwinian theory of evolution for literature.He call it as a kind of literary anthropology • He detects an archetype or myth in every kind of literature.

 The myths are connected with the Four seasons and are the archetypes of the four major genre:  The dawn, spring and the birth phase: Myth of the hero, of revival and resurrection, of creation and because the four phases are a cycle of the defeat of the

powers of darkness, winter and death .Subordinate characters; the father and the mother. The archetype of romance and of most dithyrambic and rhapsodic poetry.  The zenith, summer and marriage phase: Myths of apotheosis, of the sacred marriage and of entering into paradise. Subordinate character; the companion and the bride. The archetype of comedy, pastoral and idyll.  The sunset, autumn and death phase: Myth of fall, of the dying god, of violent death and sacrifice and of the isolation of the hero. Subordinate character; the traitor and the siren .The archetype of tragedy and elegy.  The darkness, winter and dissolution phase • Myth of the triumph of these powers, myths of floods and the return of chaos and of the defeat of the hero. • Subordinates character; the ogre and the witch. The archetype of satire.  The quest of the hero also tends to assimilate the oracular.

MODULE 4: GLOSSARY

1. Indian Poetics: Rasa, Dhwani, Vyanjana, Alamkara Thinai.

THE THEORY OF RASA

• The branch of philosophy that deals with questions on beauty and artistic taste is called Aesthetics. • Sahrdaya literally means ‘Of similar heart’. A person possessing a similar heart to that of the artist. • In Sanskrit, ‘Rasa’, means nectar, flavour, essence or taste. Rasa is an aesthetically excited emotion. • Rasa theory asserts that entertainment is expected to evoke Rasa or artistic joy. However, that is not the primary goal of art. The primary goal of art is to create a parallel life in front of the audience to experience a sense of consciousness. • The Three constituents of Rasa or The Foundation of Rasa:- Abhinava Gupta introduced the theory of Rasa in his commentary on Bharata’s Natya Sastra. • Bharata says the basic nine Rasa’s are derived from the combination of three terms. Rasa is accomplished by the combination of (1) Vibhava: Objective condition producing an emotion. (2) Anubhava:Bodily expression of the emotion. • (3) Vyabhicaribhava: A series of emotions that feed the dominant emotion). • Two kinds of Vibhava : Vibhava may be of two kinds. (1) Alambana Vibhava: Means a person or persons with reference to whom the emotion is manifested or expressed. (2) Uddipana Vibhava: The circumstances that have excited the emotion.

• Example: Alambana Vibhava: The presence of a young man near a woman may be considered as an example for Alambana Vibhava. • Example: Uddipana Vibhava : The beautiful scenery around the man and the woman, the evening breeze, the moonlight, the smell of flowers may be considered as the circumstances that have excited the emotion or Uddipana Vibhava. • Example Vyabhicaribhava: A woman waiting for her man may feel excited. She may feel disappointed that he is not coming. She may be anxious that something might have happened to him. She may feel jealous that he may have fallen in love with some other woman. She may feel happiness while remembering all the soothing words that he might have told her earlier. All this may come under the Vyabhicaribhava. • The Nine Rasa’s: (1) Sringara ( Amorous Love), (2) Hasya ( Ludicrous Humour),(3) Karuna ( Pathetic state), (4) Raudra ( Anger, Wrath), (5) Vira (Heroic state), (6)Bhayanaka ( Fearful state), 7) Bibhatsa ( Nauseating state), (8) Adbhuta (Wondrous state), (9).Santa ( Serenity or Peace). • Sthayibhava is the representation of the dominant emotions of a person. The theory of ‘Rasa’, explains that our personality is made up of a few primary emotions. These emotions may be lying in the deep subconscious or unconscious strata of our mind. The eight primary emotions are Amorous love, Ludicrous humour, Pathetic state, Anger/wrath, Heroic state, Fearful state, Nauseating state, Wondrous state. A ninth emotion was later added, serenity or peaceful state. These dominant states affect our emotions. • Bharata (Bharata Muni) supposed to have lived between 400-200 BC. He was an ancient sage who wrote Natya Shastra, a theoretical treatise on ancient India • drama and histrionics (Acting). Indian classical dance and drama take their roots in Bharata’s Natya Shastra. • Abhinava Gupta (approx 950-1020 AD) is one of India’s greatest philosophers and mystics. His most important work is Abhinava Bharathi, a prolonged • commentary on Natya Shastra of Bharata Muni. The theory of Rasa is his most important contribution to Indian aesthetics. • Bhatta Lollata was an 8th/9th Century Kashmiri Pandit. He wrote the earliest known commentary on Natya Shastra. His works have been unfortunately lost to he world. But his works are mentioned in Abhinava Bharathi, a commentary written by Abhinava Gupta on ‘ Natya Shastra and Rasa’. According to Bhatta Lollata, Rasa is produced in conjunction or combination with Vibhava, Anubhava and

Vyabhicaribhava. Mammata, a follower of Abhinava Gupta, does not agree with Lollata. Mammata thought that these were just agents that bring about Rasa. • Samkuka is an ancient Indian scholar who wrote an interpretation of the rasa sutra of Bharata known as Anumiti vada. Shri Samkuka explained and clarified the aesthetic emotion with the help or example of a painting. A painted horse is not a horse, but only an artistic, aesthetic representation or expression of the original horse. At the same time, it is a horse. Thus an aesthetic experience is at the same time real and unreal. • Camatkara: Chamatkara is the aesthetic joy, that is transcendental. It is also called the ‘Alaukika’. The word camatkara is used in three senses. (1). It is used to show the aesthetic attitude produced by the mingling of universal artistic expressions and the stirred up emotions. (2). It is also used to mean the aesthetic pleasure arising out of an experience. (3). It also means the bodily manifestation or expression out of such artistic enjoyment. • According to Abhinava Gupta, we find equal enjoyment in the experience of a tragedy as well as a comedy. It is true that we human beings find equal pleasure in the experience of tragedy as well as comedy. This enjoyment or pleasure is related to Rasa. The discussion of Rasa started in Indian aesthetics after Bharata announced that Rasa is achieved or accomplished as a result of the conjunction or combination of (1) Vibhava, objective condition producing an emotion. (2) Anubhava, bodily expression of the emotion and (3) Vyabhicaribhava, a series of emotions that feed the dominant emotion). • However, another prominent scholar of Indian aesthetics Bhatta Nayaka announced that Rasa is not produced, suggested or created by anything. • According to him, a proper aesthetic creation has a peculiar artistic function of generating or making inside us a special spiritual creation and also we have in us special function by which we can enjoy it. He called these functions ‘Bhavakatva’and ‘Bhojakatva’. ‘Bhavakatva’ is what drives away all worldly thoughts and attachments from the mind of the spectators. Bhavakatva has the capacity to remove all types of passion (Rajas) and ignorance (Tamas) from the mind of the spectators and brings in a tranquil state of mind to the spectators. This relish-ment or enjoyment is called Bhojakatva. This enjoyment is akin or similar to achieving nirvana or Brahman. • Abhinava Gupta does not agree with Bhatta Nayaka. According to him, there are all kinds of emotions dormant in the sub conscious mind of everyone that is lying dormant or suppressed. When an artistic creation touches or arouses these emotions,

we get joy or rasa. Since these emotions are common to all human beings, an artistic creation or performance gives joy or rasa to everyone. • Abhinava Gupta felt that a truly poetic composition takes us to a spectacular state of mind leading to cleansing or self purification, making the mind free of all physical and mental pain. Thus the spectators are capable of enjoying both comedies and tragedies in the same manner. • ‘Vyanjana (suggestion) is impression through suppression. It is the artistic process of expression. Thus the beauty of a poem comes from Vyanjana (suggestion) which in turn comes from suppression. The beauty of a poem is bound by its laws, yet it transcends (exceeds) them. The laws are its wings and they carry it to freedom. Its form is in law, but its spirit (soul) is in beauty. Thus the principle of suggestion (Vyanjana) establishes a synthesis (Samyojana) between law and liberty. • Genuine poetry is what comes spontaneously from the human heart. It comes from the rasa filled heart of a poet who is also a sahrdaya. Poetry originates from • the heart of the poet as spontaneously as a beautiful thought dresses itself in a beautiful dress without even any conscious effort from the poet. It means a beautiful thought is skilfully suppressed by the poet with artistic ornamented lines leading to suggestion (Vyanjana) which gives the reader wonderful impression. This is the highest test of true poetry. • DHVANI: Anandavardhana is credited with the Dhvani theory. He wrote that Dhavni or sound/resonance or suggested meaning is the soul of poetry or Kavya. • When the poet writes he creates a resonant (reverberating) field of emotions. Dhvani is Vyanjana. Vyanjana is suggestion or impression/expression through suppression. Without Dhvani, there can be no poetry.

• Vakrokti: Vakra Yukti or crooked logic has been translated as crooked or twisted expression or is a deviation in expression from the commonplace. It is also a part of Auchitya, which is the appropriate use of Rasa, Alankara in the right places. This deviation (Vakrokti) may be due to various causes, but when the deviation is effective, it is termed Vakrokti. Vakrokti is a special speech or expression where an idea is expressed with a view to attain striking results. Vakrokti is also called ‘Vaichitrya’ which is the essence of poetic speech.

• Poetic Charm: Anandavardhana, born about 820 AD, was the author of Dhvanyaloka (Dhvani Lokam) a work on the philosophy of artistic suggestions. • He is credited with creating the Dhvani theory. Abhinavagupta, a Kashmiri scholar, born about 950 AD, wrote an important commentary on it, called the Lochana (The Eye). Abhinavagupta also wrote the famous Abhinavabharati, an important commentary on Bharata Muni’s Natyasastra. • VYANJANA is regarded as the central principle of literary criticism in Sanskrit. Vyanjana (suggestion) in poetry is the soul of poetic charm. An element of suppression is necessary to attract the reader or the hearer. This element of suppression may be increased or improved in many ways and in poetry Vyanjana is the source of charm. • Secret of the force of the charm of Vyanjana: The secret of the force of the charm of Vyanjana is that there is an element of novelty in Vyanjana • (suggestion). The suggested idea is envisaged (imagined) with a certain degree of novelty. More over there is scope for some sort of intellectual quest (search) in the process of Vyanjana. Finally this quest leads to conquest. • Thus intellectual quest in Vyanjana certainly leads to some conquest or profound knowledge. Now these two things – quest and conquest are enough to create some interest. Thirdly Vyanjana means something is concealed for a moment and this tends to increase the degree of charm just like distance, perspective or a partly concealed beauty. • Uttama kavya: Anandavardhana, the great critic and artist of Sanskrit literature has divided poetic expression into three heads. The names are Uttama, Madhyama and Adhama. This classification is based on how far the suggested element is allowed to rule supreme in a poem. If, in a poem the suggested element is allowed to rule supreme and never lets itself to be subordinated to anything else is called Uttama kavya. • Sabda and Artha or Literary Form and content: The principle of Vyanjana (suggestion) has made possible another beautiful synthesis. It is the synthesis between speech and thought, or sound and sense or “Sabda and “Artha”. The ancient writers of India have given significant place to this synthesis between “Sabda” meaning ‘word’ and “Artha” meaning sense. We are aware of the fact that the literary art or an expression of literary art involves two important aspects. They are form and content (The wrapping and the gift) Every artist or poet has to pay special attention to literary form and literary content.

• Ordinary words grouped in an artistic way with some ideas, which is “Vachyartha’ (Vaachyaartham/primary sense) constitute form. It must be bright, free from defects. The other elements connected with form are technically referred to as ‘Gunas’, ‘Alamkaras’, ‘Ritis’ etc. Literary form contains ‘Gunas(Qualities)’, ‘Alamkaras(Decorative measures in poetry) and ‘Ritis’ (Arrangement of words in poetry).‘Dhvani’, ‘Rasa’, and ‘Unnaya (Unnayanam) (Exaltation/Ecstasy/Happiness/great-thoughts) or ‘Anumana (Anumanam) (Inference/doubt/Abhuyha)’ refer to the literary content (artistic thought). • Vyanjana is Lokottara, not Laukika: Vyanjana is an essentially an artistic process of expression (Padha-prayoga/Sabda-rachana). It is not an ordinary process of expression, as it involves suppression of the normal/usual/agreeable type of usages. The agreeable type of Vyanjana is of normal quality and is quite different from the Vyanjana of artistic language. It is essentially an artistic process because it gives us an impression of very high order, and not the impression of the ordinary craftsman- like or mechanical type but a delicate impression described as artistic thrill. It is an extraordinary process which can be done by only skilled poets such as Valmiki, Kalidasa, Shakespeare, Keats Shelley etc. Vyanjana adds beauty and glory to the poem. And Alamkarikas described this principle of Vyanjana as extreme process and called it Lokottara-Vritti (Aloukia or The most exalted thing) and not Laukika. Therefore Anandavardhana, the great Sanskrit scholar and author of Dhvanyaloka raised the principle of Vyanjana (suggestion) to the rank of the central principle of literary criticism. • The contribution of Anandavardhana to Vyanjana or Anandavardhana’s reclassification of poetic art :Anandavardhana, born about 820 AD, was the author of Dhvanyaloka (Dhvani LOKam) a work on the philosophy of artistic suggestions. He is credited with creating the Dhvani theory. Anandavardhana made extensive researches and envisaged the fruitfulness of the principle of Vyanjana (suggestion) and on the basis of his research, he re-classified the poetic expression of Vyanjana under three heads. He divided poetry into three classes such as (1) Uttama or the best, (2) Madhyama ( middle) and (3) Adhama (The worst). Uttama specimen of poetry allows the suggested element (Vyanjana) to reign supreme and never allows itself to be subordinated to anything else. Madhyma specimen of poetry is one in which the suggested element is not raised to the supreme rank but at the same time there is minimum degree of agreeableness, beauty and attractiveness. In Adhama poetry, the suggested element is allowed to lie hidden or buried. Anandavardhana says that the central principle of Vyanjana (suggestion) makes the unity of poetry

and can be used as the leading principle of art criticism and as the source of literary beauty by making Vyanjana as a magic wand. This is the great contribution of Anandavardhana to Vyanjana (suggestion). • ALAMKARA: Auchithya or Aucitya.: The meaning of the Sanskrit word auchitya is appropriateness (Right or wrong), harmony(agreement) and proportion (ratio). It is the ultimate way of balancing beauty in poetry. Aucitya is the clear statement of the proper place and function of Alamkara and other elements in poetry. • Hetu Utpreksha. Hetu Utpreksha means fancied or imaginary cause. A fine example is the case where Lord Brahma appearing before aadhikavi, Valmiki, as if he is jealous of the appearance of his spouse Vani in the form of or Kavyadevatha in Valmiki. Off course Brahma blesses Valmiki to complete the epic. • Alamkaras are the figures used in the poetry to heighten/enhance the effect. Alamkaras help the poet to say something more • pointedly/deeply/intensely/profoundly. Alamkaras at the right place are like ornaments. They aid in making the body of the poem beautiful and meaningful. Alamkaras and Rasa are like body and soul in poetry. The function of Alamkara is to heighten the Rasa.(Rasabhavaparatha and Svabhavokti) • Rasa is an important concept in Sanskrit literary criticism. Rasa is the agreeable quality of something or a flavour. Rasa theory asserts that entertainment is expected to evoke Rasa or artistic joy. Rasa is brought about by Alamkara. Alamkara brings Rasa to any kind of art, especially to poetry. Rasa is the soul of poetry. Without Rasa, poetry will be like a carcass, a body without life. Alamkara must be rasabhavapara. Alamkara adorns rasa and aid the realization of Rasa. What aids to the main theme’s beauty is Alamkara. • Alamkara should always suggest rasa. It has to come along with the poet’s description. It should come naturally. The poet must not make any special efforts to bring it. It may seem that the alamkaras are artificial and that they need elaborate intellectual efforts to bring them into the body of the poetry. However, for a master it is never difficult. It comes floating naturally as a flower’s fragrance is naturally born by the wind. If alamkaras are used for the sake of alamkaras, they will lose their freshness and natural feel. Such artificial use of alamkaras are to be avoided at all cost. • Language is meant to communicate our thoughts and ideas to others. In ordinary conversation, we use both plain and figurative language. When a person wants to describe a scene to another person, he does not give a long list of all the things that he had seen. He explains only those things which had struck him and the emotions

that were aroused in him. He transports the mental images to the hearer. If the presentation is plain, we have the natural description called the ‘Svabhavokti’. But if he thinks that the hearer has not understood the things in the same way he had experienced, he will use more illustrative images. He will make his language more figurative. In short, he will make it Rasabhavapara. • THINAI: Sangam Literature is the ancient Tamil Literature of ancient Southern India called as Tamizhagam (modern day Tamilnadu and Kerala) spanning from 400 BCE and 200 CE. It deals with love, battles governance, trade and bereavement. Akam (interior) and Puram (Exterior) are not only thematic divisions of the Sangam poems. They are more than that. The two categories are related to each other by context, and by contrast. • Akam and Puram are very old Tamil words. Akam means interior, heart, mind, self, kin, house, family, inland, settlement, earth, love poems and codes of conduct appropriate to akam. Puram has opposite qualities to match each of these. • Meaning of Akam and Puram • Akam – interior, Puram – exterior • Akam – heart, mind, Puram – body surfaces & extremeties • Akam – self, Puram – others • Akam – Kin, Puram – non-kin • Akam – house, family, Puram – house yard, field • Akam – earth, Puram – farthest ocean • Akam is further divided into 5 divisions called thinais. The word thinai means ‘land’. These are Kurinji, Mullai, Pālai, Neythal and Marutham. Each of these have unique characteristics • 2. Literary Movements: Classicism, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Humanism, Realism, Naturalism, symbolism. • CLASSICISM: (Literary Movement) 18th Century Movement of artists and writers derived from the forms and principles of ancient Greece and Rome. It was a political and philosophical movement away from overt religion and toward reason and science. • Classicism includes the movement known as the ‘Age of Reason’ or the ‘Enlightenment.’ • Writers and philosophers emphasized the role of rational thought in human affairs. • Stressed: Reason, Balance, Order, Clarity, Ideal beauty, Common man, Orderly form/structure, Tradition, Nature as a machine, Society, Logic and Unity. • Terms:

• Secular- writing on science, ethics and government rather than religion. • Rationalism- the belief that human beings can arrive at truth by using reason rather than relying on the authority of the past, religious faith, or intuition. • Beliefs: • Rationalists saw God as a clockmaker- that is, that God created the perfect mechanism and then left his creation to run on its own. • According to rationalists, God’s special gift to humanity was reason, which enabled people to find both scientific and spiritual truth. • Rationalists saw the universe as harmonious and carefully ordered. • Rationalists believed in the perfectibility of human beings. • If people used reason to bring about scientific advances and better government then society would advance to an ideal state. • Social ills could be corrected • The quality of life could be improved • NEOCLASSISM: Neoclassical literature has been written in a period where social order was undergoing a tremendous change. In the so-called Enlightenment Period, people believed that natural passions aren’t necessarily good; natural passions must be subordinated to social needs and be strictly controlled. • Authors believed that reason was the primary basis of authority. They believed that social needs are more important than individual needs. It is quite on contrary to its preceding age, in which emphasis was laid on individualism rather than the socialism. • In England, Neoclassicism flourished roughly between 1660, when the Stuarts returned to the throne, and the 1798 publication of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads, with its theoretical preface and collection of poems that came to be seen as heralding the beginning of the Romantic Age. • One of the most important features of the Neoclassical literature is the imitation of the classics of ancient Greek and Roman literature. • The concept of nature was also an important characteristic of the Neoclassical age. By nature, they never meant the forest nature, but for them, nature meant the general human nature. • The Neoclassical literature considers man as a limited being, having limited power • Neoclassical drama falls into two phases- • Restoration Drama (later 17th century) • Sentimental Drama (18th century)

• Neoclassical Period is often called the Age of Reason. Thinkers of this age considered reason to be the highest mental faculty and sufficient guide in all areas. • ROMANTICISM: A period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism in general and late 18th-century Neoclassicism in particular. • Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. • Romanticism was then adopted in England. Poets are divided in two generations : • First generation: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. • Second generation: George Byron, Percy Shelley, John Keats. • HUMANISM: • A European anthropocentric philosophical school which gives predominant importance to human beings rather than divine or supernatural powers. • Reaction against medieval scholasticism which ignored man and concentrated on ideology. • The word humanism was used by German Scholars in 18th century to denote classical knowledge. • It stresses the importance of human dignity and values. • REALISM: • The accurate and minute depiction of people, things and events in literature and arts. • Social Realism, Naturalism and Magical Realism are considered as sub genres of realism. • NATURALISM • Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from 1865 to 1900. • The term was first used in 1863 by a French art critic named Jules-Antoine Castagnary. He was referring to a so-called “naturalist school” of painting. The writer Émile Zola later adopted this term for literature that focused on narratives based on the scientific method. • A late nineteenth century movement in literature that was originated in the France. • An outgrowth of Realism, it was influenced by Darwinism, materialism and French critic Hippolyte Taine. • Naturalism suggests that natural forces, environment heredity and social conditions have a definite role in shaping the human character.

• SYMBOLISM: • Symbolism is a literary device that refers to the use of symbols in a literary work. A symbol is something that stands for or suggests something else; it represents something beyond literal meaning. In literature, a symbol can be a word, object, action, character, or concept that embodies and evokes a range of additional meaning and significance. • The movement was pioneered by W.B.Yeats. • LITERARY CONCEPTS: • Catharsis (Module -1) • Mimesis (Module -1) • Objective Correlative(Module-3) • Ambiguity (Module-3) • Negative Capability- • The nineteenth-century English poet John Keats introduced the term “negative capability”.as a means to create acceptance in regards to the unknown. Famously, one of the letters of John Keats makes mention of negative capability to his brothers George and Tom Keats, arguing against the pursuit of logic and reason in favor of a sense of beauty and wonder.