Symbol

Q. What is symbol? Give a suitable example by referring to a poem you have read.

i) Symbol is something associated with something else that it signifies or represents. Symbol is an object that stands for something else and opens up the possibility of multiple meanings over and beyond it. Symbols frequently are based on a likeness. The lion represents courage because lions are said to be bravo. The lily symbolizes purity because, it is white. Symbolic identifications have a certain persistence, but symbols are detachable and in time may find other affinities. The eagle of Jupiter,a heavenly messenger, became identified in Christian times with St. John, but in alchemy the eagle became the symbol of volatilization. In a somewhat stranger fashion, red -the colour of Christian charity - became associated for quite other reasons with communism and class conflict. Analogy in symbolism can be attributed to the theory of correspondence, which involved the idea that all parts of creation are related through analogy, so that to every material manifestation there corresponds a reality of a higher Order. As a result poetic symbolism becomes a means of revealing the hidden correspondences of the universe. The literary symbol appeals to the imagination and to the instinctive feelings of the reader, not to the intellect. A symbol is not a token with a precise, definite,clearly established conceptual reference to be pinned down and accurately described.




ii) Blake's The Tyger stands for and points to creative energy but it is also an instance of that creative energy, The mental picture of the Tiger bursting through the "forests of the night" is terrifyingly beautiful. According  to T.S.Eliot, the Tiger symbolizes for Blake the "abundant life" which Christ came to bring into the world. The Tiger is for Blake a symbol of regeneration and energy. In The Tyger, Blake suggests the dual aspect of God as creator and destroyer but the symbol remains enigmatic. The poem represents the defeat of Urizen(Satan) by Ore(God); the stars who throw down their spears are the hosts of Urizen, their cold light suggesting the sterility of Reason in contrast to the fiery heat of Energy, In the Prophetic Books, the "immortal smith" is Los. In The.First Book of Urizen,  Loa forges Urizen. Since Los represents in some sense Man, the point is that Man is responsible for the creation of Urizen. In "The Tyger", the "immortal smith" forges the Tiger. Possibly the meaning is that it is up to man to give shape to the vast potentialities with which it
is endowed.

Naturalism

Naturalism:

Naturalism, a literary and cultural movement, grew out of realism in 19^th century. It gives a more accurate depiction of life than realism. It is a mode of writing fiction that was deeply influenced by the Darwinian theory of evolution and focused on the gloomy aspects of life and the animal aspects hidden behind rational side of man.

Philosophical Influences on Naturalism: Darwin’s theory of evolution that destroys the possibility of connection of man with the higher spiritual order and considers man as an animal of higher-order whose character and behaviour are determined by heredity and environment. Thus it rejects the concept of the divine origin of man and shows man as helpless victim of his instincts and environment. Thus it postulates the central notion of Naturalism.

Proponents of Naturalism and their works:

• Emile Zola- Nana, Germinal (France)
• Thomas Hardy- Jude the Obscure (England)
• Edith Wharton- The House of Mirth (America)
• Ellen Glasgow- Barren Ground (America)

Difference between Realism and Naturalism:

                Though Naturalism grows out of realism, it gives a more accurate picture of life than Realism does. While Realism gives a general picture of life, Naturalism focuses on the darker aspects of life and presents ma as nothing but an animal of higher-order whose behaviour and character are determined by heredity and environment. Lastly, Naturalism was greatly influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution. But in case of realism, there was no such philosophic influence.

Realism, Reality and Real

Realism: 

The term “realism” is used in two different ways. Firstly, it refers to a movement in the writings of novels during 19^th century that includes writers like Balzac in France, George Eliot in England and William Dean Howells in America. Secondly, it refers to a mode of writing in different eras and literary form that represents human life and experience in way that appears realistic to the readers.

Define and Explain “real”, “reality” and “realism”:

• “Real” means existing as a thing or occurring as a fact. Actually what is not imaginary is real.

• “Reality” is the quality of being real. But the qualities that make an object to appear real are not fixed. It varies with regard to time, place and individual.

• The term “realism” refers to a literary movement that took place in 19^th century. It is also a method of writing that represents the subject matter (it may be commonplace or rarer aspects of life) in a credible way so that the readers may take it as real.

Modernism and Postmodernism

Modernism and Postmodernism:

Modernism: Modernism refers to the new styles and trends in European literature, art and culture in the early decades of twentieth century, especially after world war-I. It emerged showing distrust of the values of Enlightenment and rationalism which were at the centre of European civilization   since Renaissance and found man isolated, alienated, and irrational in an empty and meaningless universe. To express the fragmented, isolated, irrational and absurd nature of life and experience, literature became fragmented, dislocated and self-reflexive, departing from the standard ways of representing characters and violating the traditional syntax and coherence of narrative language by the use of stream of consciousness and other innovative modes of narration.

Postmodernism: The term refers to new trends in literature and culture in the western countries after world war-II. It developed both as a continuation of and reaction against Modernism. It breaks out of the elitist image of High Modernism and creates a centreless, depthless, non-hierarchical, non-stable and hybrid world where different cultures and their codes intersect with each other making a kind of carnival. In literature, its parallel movements like Poststructuralism and its associated theories like Reader-response theory, New Historicism, Cultural Materialism, Feminism reject all sorts of authority, hierarchy  and centrality and speak of the importance of marginal and heterogeneity.

Difference between Modernism and Postmodernism: Firstly, Modernism is a search for a new centre by various modernist writers and artists after the destruction of the values of Enlightenment and rationalism which were at the centre of western thought. The Postmodernist writers, on the other hand, like to stay in a centreless and non-hierarchical world.

                Secondly, Modernism led to create an elitist image of literature and made a clear distinction between high and low culture. But Postmodernism broke out of the elitist image of Modernism and erased the distinction between high culture and low culture.

                Thirdly, Modernism is often characterised by alienation and isolation. But Terry Eagleton describes that living in a Postmodern world is like “alienating from alienation.” It is living with the awareness of the their which crept in our private places through mass media.

                Lastly, Modernism can be described as a sort of attempt to create a sort of order out chaos. On the other hand, Postmodernism is a complete surrender to the world of chaos.

Some Brief Notes on Romanticism

Romanticism

What do you mean by Romanticism?

Ans. Romanticism is a literary and cultural movement that took place in the first half of the 19^th century in Europe. It rejected the enlightenment values of materialism, empiricism and classicism as mechanical, impersonal and artificial and turned to the emotional directness of personal experience, freedom of individual imagination and above all originality and spontaneity of expression.

Difference between Romanticism and Neoclassicism:  

Firstly, Romanticism (Romanticism consists in a revolting spirit that strives to violate the literary norms and rules.) favours innovation over traditionalism in the material forms and style of literature. But Neoclassicism exhibits a strong traditionalism and a distrust of radical innovation

   
      Secondly, Romanticism stresses on the emotional directness of experience, freedom of individual imagination and above all originality and spontaneity of expression. Neoclassicism, on the other hand, always favours rationalism over easy emotionalism, reality over imagination and impersonal over personal. Instead of spontaneous and originality of expression, it relies upon careful and studied way of writing which should be modelled upon the great works of classical writers.

      

      Difference between Romance and Romanticism: The term ‘Romance’ refers to a particular kind of literary genre. It tells a fictional story in verse or prose that relates improbable adventures of idealised characters in some remote or enchanted setting. There are popular romances written in England in the Middle ages. Romance may contain the elements of romantic literature.

Romanticism is a literary and cultural movement that grew as a reaction against                           Neoclassicism and emphasised the importance of individual imagination and emotion                      and the spontaneity of expression.

 Major aspects of Romanticism: Romanticism, as a literary and cultural movement, is characterised by its emphasis upon the emotional directness of personal experience, freedom of individual imagination and originality and spontaneity of expression. It is also characterised by a renewed interest in nature, absconding tendency of mind and feelings of transience of human existence often dominate romantic literature.

Major Proponents of Romantic Movement in England with dominant aspects of Romanticism :

·         Samuel Taylor  Coleridge (Supernaturalism, Medievalism)

·         Percy Bysshe Shelley (revolting anti-institutional spirit and love of nature)

·         William Wordsworth (love and spiritualization of nature)

·          John Keats (love of beauties of nature, sensuality, Hellenism and medievalism)

·         George Gordon Byron (revolting spirit).

Humanism and some important questions and their answers

Humanism

1)Write a brief note on the basic concept of Humanism.

Ans. Humanism is an active ethical and philosophical approach to life focusing on human solutions to human issues through rational arguments without recourse to a god, gods, sacred texts or religious creeds. Most generally, it refers to any philosophy that emphasises human welfare and dignity and is optimistic about the power of human reason. Humanism has become a kind of implied ethical doctrine ("-ism") whose sphere is expanded to include the whole human ethnicity, as opposed to traditional ethical systems which apply only to particular ethnic groups.

2) What do you mean by Renaissance Humanism?

Ans. Humanism as a philosophical, cultural and social movement in Europe has its root in Renaissance. This sweeping movement across Europe is known as Renaissance Humanism. Renaissance humanism was a cultural movement in Europe from the mid-14^th century Italy (particularly Florence) to the mid-17^th century England. The humanist movement developed from the rediscovery by European scholars of Latin literary and Greek literary texts. Initially, a humanist was simply a scholar or teacher of “studia humanities” that involves grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and moral philosophy as studied via Latin and Greek literary authors. The return to favour of the pagan classics stimulated the philosophy of secularism, the appreciation of worldly pleasures, and above all intensified the assertion of personal independence and individual expression.

3) Trace the growth and development of Renaissance Humanism as cultural movement.

Ans. According to the Renaissance humanist, classical world of the antiquity was the pinnacle of human achievement, especially intellectual achievement, and should be taken as a model by contemporary Europeans. The intellectual heritage of the ancient world had been lost  due to the fall of Rome to Germanic invaders in the fifth century. The only way in which Europeans could expect to pull themselves out of this intellectual catastrophe was to attempt to recover, edit, and make available these lost texts, which included, among others, almost all the works of Plato. The return to favor of the pagan classics stimulated the philosophy of secularism, the appreciation of worldly pleasures, and above all intensified the assertion of personal independence and individual expression. Thus Renaissance Humanism emerged as a cultural force and held sway over European literature, art and culture of succeeding centuries.

4) Mention the remarkable figures of Renaissance Humanism in Europe.

Ans. Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), one of the greatest humanists, occupied a position midway between extreme piety and frank secularism. Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) represented conservative Italian humanism. Robust secularism and intellectual independence reached its height in Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) and Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540). Rudolphus Agricola (1443-1485) may be regarded as the German Petrarch. In England, John Colet (c.1467-1519) and Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) were early or conservative humanists, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) represented later or agnostic and sceptical humanism. Besides, there were humanists like Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser and John Milton representing spirit of Christian humanism. In France, pious classicists like Lefèvre d'Étaples (1453-1536) were succeeded by frank, urbane, and devout skeptics like Michel Montaigne (1533-1592) and bold anti-clerical satirists like François Rabelais (c.1495-1533).

5) Mention the major texts that contain the beliefs and values of Humanism.

Ans. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s An Oration on the Dignity of Man is taken as seminal text in the development of humanism. In it, he talked about how God created man and that man's greatness comes from God. He said that man was like a chameleon. It meant that he could become whatever he wanted to be. He speaks of the infinitely possibility hidden within man. In England, Thomas More’s Utopia, which shows the way of creating an ideal heaven on earth, represents Renaissance spirit of worldliness. Bacon’s essay like Of Truth, Of Study etc. take a worldly and pragmatic attitude to life. Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus represents a Renaissance man’s craving for knowledge, wealth and physical beauty.

Literary Image:

Q. What is an image? Illustrate with examples.
Ans.

Image: Image in its simplest sense is a word picture. C. Day Lewis in his Poetic Image defined it as a “picture made out of words”. Images are used to make poetry concrete, as opposed to abstract. An image is a description of some visible scene or object. But apart from the visual reproduction of the object, an image may appeal to other senses like – sense of touch, sense of smell, sense of taste etc. Images may be of two types – literal and figurative. Literal image is taken for what it is. It only gives us a mental picture and does not refer to any further thought. But figurative images are the vehicles of similes and metaphors. It not only gives us a mental picture but also carries with it a thought apart from that picture. In William Wordsworth’s “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”, we find literal images of “untrodden ways”, “springs”, “grave”. But there are also figurative images which function as the vehicles of similes and metaphor. Some examples are “A violet by a mossy stone” and “a star, when only one/ Is shining in the sky”. All these refer to the secluded life of Lucy. In Philip Sidney’s Loving in Truth, we get literal images like “blackest face”, “fresh and fruitful showers”. But there are the images of child, step-dame and pregnant woman which act as the vehicles of metaphors and similes and convey the sense of spontaneous poetic skill, artificial and learned approach to poetry and poet full of thoughts and feelings respectively.

CATAHARSIS

CATAHARSIS: 

While defining tragedy Aristotle writes that tragedy aims at arousing the emotion of pity and fear to affect the “Katharsis” of these emotions. Confusion arises due to aristotle’s use of the term “Katharsis” for he never elucidated the term or even mentioned it again in the whole Poetics. The Greek word “Katharsis” has three meanings – “purgation”, “purification” and “clarification”. Critics have taken each meaning to give a new interpretation of the term.
                             Catharsis has often been taken as a medical metaphor – “purgation”. Some critics regards this process as similar to homeopathic treatment with like curing the like. A similar view is expressed by Aristotle in The Politics where he refers to religious frenzy being cured by certain tunes which create religious frenzy. Tragedy offers an excess of emotion of pity and fear that bring to surface our latent emotion of pity and fear which we bring with us in real life. Thus it purges us of those excess of emotion and restores a healthy state of emotional equilibrium.
                           Humphrey House rejects the idea of “purgation” as a medical metaphor to propound his own theory of “purification” which involves the idea of moral instruction and moral learning. Humphrey House points out that “purgation means cleansing”. Now cleansing may be a “quantitative evacuation”, or a “qualitative change” in the body brought about by a restoration of proper equilibrium. According to Humphrey House, a qualitative change is brought about in our system of emotional responses and the result is emotional health. Thus our emotions are purified of excess and defect and are reduced to intermediate state, trained and directed towards the attainment of the “Golden Mean” which is the focal point of discussion in Aristotle’s Ethics.
                          It was forgotten that Aristotle was writing treatise not on psychology but on art of poetry. He is more concerned with the technique, the way in which ideal tragedy can be written than its psychological effects on the audience. Leon Golden translates the relevant part of Aristotle’s famous definition of poetry in the following way: “...through the representation of pitiable and fearful incidents, tragedy achieves the catharsis of such incidents.” Thus he relates catharsis not to the emotions of the spectators, as in other theories but to the incidents which form the plot of tragedy, to happen in tragedy itself. This is known as “clarification theory”.
                                    Thus  “purgation”,  “purgation”,  “clarification”, each interpretation is justified in themselves. Though the critics differ from each other considerably, they agree on point that tragedy arouses the emotions of pity and fear thereby pleasing us in its final effect.

Aristotle’s Concept of Tragic Hero

Aristotle’s Concept of Tragic Hero: 

Function of a tragedy, according to Aristotle, is to arouse the emotions of pity and fear. Therefore three types of plot should be avoided. Firstly, a perfectly good man should not be  shown as passing from happiness to misery. Such an action would be morally shocking. Secondly, the spectacle of an utterly bad man passing from misery to happiness is unacceptable to us and should be avoided.

Aristotle

Thirdly, the spectacle of the downfall of a villain will satisfy our moral sense and cannot arouse the emotions of pity and fear. Having excluded three types of plot, Aristotle opts for a protagonist who is not predominantly virtuous not thoroughly bad. Aristotle points that an ideal tragic hero is “the sort of person who is not outstanding in moral excellence or justice; on the other hand, the change to bad fortune which he undergoes is not due to any moral defect or depravity, but to an error of some kind” [Poetics, Amlan Das Gupta (ed.) Pearson, and Longman]. Butcher points out that he is like us and raised above the ordinary level by a deeper vein of feeling, or a heightened powers of intellect or will. He idealised, but still he has so much of common humanity as to enlist our interest and sympathy. Apart from the inner qualities of a tragic hero, Aristotle lays bare another significant aspect of tragic hero. “He is one of those people who are held in great esteem and enjoy great good fortune, like Oedipus, Thyestes” [Poetics, Amlan Das Gupta (ed.)]. On the whole, he must be a highly placed individual, well-reputed, but in moral sense he would be men like us.

Aristotle's Concept of Three Unities

Aristotle's Concept of  Three Unities: 

The three unites are unity of time, unity of place and unity of action. The action in a tragedy, according to Aristotle, must be a “complete a whole” and it must have “organic unity”.  Aristotle’s conception of the unity of action is not a formal and mechanical one. According to Butcher, it is “an organic unity, an inward principle which reveals itself in the form of an outward whole”. Though tragic action centres on one man’s life, tragic unity is not easily achieved because infinitely various are the incidents in one man’s life which cannot be reduced to unity. Therefore all such events which do not directly contribute to the process of protagonist’s passing from happiness to misery should be rigorously eliminated. Aristotle also rejects the plurality of action. There should be one plot. He is against the introduction of a sub-plot or double ending because it may weaken the tragic effect. The doctrine of the unity of time rests on only one passage in Poetics. Here Aristotle differentiates tragedy and epic poetry saying that tragedy endeavours to “confine itself to a single revolution of time or but slightly to exceed the limit whereas epic action has no such limit of time”. Neo-classical dramatist believed that there should be an exact correspondence between the time of the dramatic action and the time of the events being imitated. Aristotle never mentioned the unity of place anywhere in Poetics. While comparing epic and tragedy, he merely says that the epic may narrate several actions taking place simultaneously at several places, but this not possible for tragedy which does not narrate, but represent through action. This chance remark led Renaissance and Neo-classical critics to formulate a rigid rule of unity of action. It was said that in drama there should be no change of place. Even if change takes place, it should be confined to the limits of a single city. Each of these unity has been violated by many Elizabethan and modern dramatists. Even in some Greek dramas these unities were not scrupulously observed. Yet we cannot deny the importance of Aristotle’s theory. We must remember what Bywater said: “What Aristotle says is not a percept, but only an incidental recognition of a fact in practice of theatre of his age.”

Hamartia

Hamartia: According to Aristotle, downfall of the hero “is not due to any moral defect or depravity, but to an error of some kind”. In this context, Aristotle uses the word “hamartia” which is often loosely interpreted as “tragic flaw”, as it has been done by Bradely. But Butcher, Bywater and Rostangi all agree that “Hamartia” is not associated with moral state. Instead, it is an error of judgement which a man commits. Humphrey House observes that Aristotle does not assert or deny anything about the connection of “hamartia” with moral failing in the hero: “It may be accompanied by moral imperfection, but it is not itself a moral imperfection, and in the purest tragic the suffering hero is not morally to blame”. Hamartia, an error of judgement, may arise from three following ways. Firstly, it may arise from “ignorance of material fact or circumstance”. Secondly, it may be an error arising from hasty or careless view of the special case. Thirdly, it may be an error voluntary but not deliberate, as in the case of acts committed in anger or passion. In King Oedipus, Butcher says, “his (Aristotle) conception of hamartia includes all the three meanings above, which in English cannot be covered by single term.” Therefore “hamartia” is not a moral imperfection. It may be accompanied with moral fault. It is an error of judgement arising from ignorance of some material circumstance or from rashness and impulsiveness.

Aristotle’s Concept of Tragic Hero

Aristotle’s Concept of Tragic Hero: Function of a tragedy, according to Aristotle, is to arouse the emotions of pity and fear. Therefore three types of plot should be avoided. Firstly, a perfectly good man should not be  shown as passing from happiness to misery. Such an action would be morally shocking. Secondly, the spectacle of an utterly bad man passing from misery to happiness is unacceptable to us and should be avoided. Thirdly, the spectacle of the downfall of a villain will satisfy our moral sense and cannot arouse the emotions of pity and fear. Having excluded three types of plot, Aristotle opts for a protagonist who is not predominantly virtuous not thoroughly bad. Aristotle points that an ideal tragic hero is “the sort of person who is not outstanding in moral excellence or justice; on the other hand, the change to bad fortune which he undergoes is not due to any moral defect or depravity, but to an error of some kind” [Poetics, Amlan Das Gupta (ed.) Pearson, and Longman]. Butcher points out that he is like us and raised above the ordinary level by a deeper vein of feeling, or a heightened powers of intellect or will. He idealised, but still he has so much of common humanity as to enlist our interest and sympathy. Apart from the inner qualities of a tragic hero, Aristotle lays bare another significant aspect of tragic hero. “He is one of those people who are held in great esteem and enjoy great good fortune, like Oedipus, Thyestes” [Poetics, Amlan Das Gupta (ed.)]. On the whole, he must be a highly placed individual, well-reputed, but in moral sense he would be men like us.