Modernism Flashcards

Matthew Arnold, T.S. Elliot (The Waste Land)

1
Q
A
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2
Q

The 19th century brought a shift

A

in the
conceptualisation of creativity.

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3
Q

The neoclassical age conceived of poetic agency as

A

invention.

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4
Q

Romantic cultural sensibility and agency was
internally

A

heterogeneous

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5
Q

The end of the Victorian age marks a shift in the

A

Western paradigm of thought.

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6
Q

What does Modernism reject

A

Modernism rejects long-held metaphysical and
aesthetic beliefs most theorists from Plato to
Coleridge took for granted.

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7
Q

Matthew Arnold

A

English poet and critic.
Dover Beach is
one of the first examples
of modern sensibility
in English poetry.

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8
Q

Arnold the poet

A

shares in the Romantic
sensibility.

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9
Q

Arnold the critic

A

seeks to replace the Romantic focus
on feelings with a renewed focus on ideas.

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10
Q

What does T. S. Eliot argue about poetry

A

T. S. Eliot continues the “de-romanticizing” of
theory, arguing that poetry is essentially a depersonalizing process

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11
Q

Who are the precursors of objective theories that dominate the beginning of the modern age

A

Arnold and Eliot are precursors of objective
theories that dominate the dawn of the modern
age.

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12
Q

Creative faculty

A

most fully expresses itself in the
synthesis of existing ideas.

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13
Q

critical faculty

A

creates these ideas to begin
with

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14
Q

How do critics create new ideas

A

Critics create new ideas through analysis and
discovery, by seeing objects as they are (i.e., not
as they are perceived by the creative poet)

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15
Q

In an epoch of expansion

A

a culture is rich with new
and fresh ideas. poets are needed to
harness intellectual energy and convert it into
great works of art. In an epoch of expansion poets embody the
Zeitgeist.

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16
Q

An epoch of concentration

A

is conceptualized as an
age in which ideas are stagnant and the free
exchange of ideas is stifled. Critics are needed during epochs of concentration
to help create and foster a free flow of ideas
that will initiate a new epoch of expansion.

17
Q

great literature is the product

A

of a
creative fusion between a great poet and an epoch
of expansion.

18
Q

The “best” is what is now known as

A

“the
canon”, the Great Books of the Western world
(e.g. Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, etc.)

19
Q

Poet and critic are

A

interdependent

20
Q

Criticism

A

a disinterested endeavour
to learn and propagate the best that is known and
thought in the world

21
Q

Disinterested, as opposed to uninterested

A

, signifies
a critical approach that is removed, objective,
and free from all political agendas. (cf. Kant’s
idea of purposeless purpose)

22
Q

Arnold’s view is such that canonical works are

A

aesthetically superior and could be shown to be
so by objective, disinterested criticism.

23
Q

What did Arnold’s theoretical reasoning emphasize

A

Arnold’s theoretical reasoning increased the
emphasis on the importance and centrality of
literary criticism.

24
Q

What did critical reading start focusing on

A

Critical reading started focusing on the
properties of the text in and of itself.

25
T.S. Eliot
Poet and critic, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in1948. The Wasteland is a poetic icon of literary modernism.
26
Eliot replaced the Romantic emphasis on spontaneity, originality, and novelty with a new focus on
history, culture, and tradition.
27
Writing means being conscious both of
the pastness of the past and its presentness
28
Literary maturity is conveyed through
the writer’s sense of the past, confidence in the present and no doubt of the future
29
Literary creativeness
has to do with maintaining an unconscious balance between tradition and originality.
30
Tradition “cannot be inherited”, but must be
“obtained by great labour”
31
Poetry is not the expression of a strong personality (as it was for the Romantics) but the
“continual extinction of personality”, a means of depersonalisation.
32
For Eliot, poetry is an
artistic process rather than a subjective perception.
33
Objective correlative
refers to a set of objects, situation, or chain of events that correlate to an internal emotion.
34
The poet is conceived as a site of the fusion between
the external and the internal.
35
Both Arnold and Eliot increasingly turn their attention away from
artists to ideas about art.
36
What does Arnold highlight regarding the significance of context and historical moment for artistic endeavor
In thinking about (intellectual) history in aesthetic terms, Arnold highlights the significance of context and the historical moment for the artistic endeavour.
37
Eliot reacts against the Wordsworthian notion of creation as a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility” and opposes
he seemingly autonomous agency of the artistic subject to the idea of the artist as a catalyst participating in historical processes that exceed the individual creator.
38
What aspects of Eliot's critique extend into his reasoning about depersonalization and the objective correlative
Eliot’s critique of the Romantic fondness for affect extends into his reasoning about depersonalisation and the objective correlative, both of which, in conjunction with the sense of tradition, explain how an individual talent joins the league of artists.
39
What does the thinking of Arnold and Eliot reveal about Romantic epistemology and aesthetics
Arnold’s and Eliot’s thinking reveals the complexity and heterogeneity of Romantic epistemology and aesthetics.