Modernism Flashcards
Matthew Arnold, T.S. Elliot (The Waste Land)
The 19th century brought a shift
in the
conceptualisation of creativity.
The neoclassical age conceived of poetic agency as
invention.
Romantic cultural sensibility and agency was
internally
heterogeneous
The end of the Victorian age marks a shift in the
Western paradigm of thought.
What does Modernism reject
Modernism rejects long-held metaphysical and
aesthetic beliefs most theorists from Plato to
Coleridge took for granted.
Matthew Arnold
English poet and critic.
Dover Beach is
one of the first examples
of modern sensibility
in English poetry.
Arnold the poet
shares in the Romantic
sensibility.
Arnold the critic
seeks to replace the Romantic focus
on feelings with a renewed focus on ideas.
What does T. S. Eliot argue about poetry
T. S. Eliot continues the “de-romanticizing” of
theory, arguing that poetry is essentially a depersonalizing process
Who are the precursors of objective theories that dominate the beginning of the modern age
Arnold and Eliot are precursors of objective
theories that dominate the dawn of the modern
age.
Creative faculty
most fully expresses itself in the
synthesis of existing ideas.
critical faculty
creates these ideas to begin
with
How do critics create new ideas
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)
In an epoch of expansion
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.
An epoch of concentration
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.
great literature is the product
of a
creative fusion between a great poet and an epoch
of expansion.
The “best” is what is now known as
“the
canon”, the Great Books of the Western world
(e.g. Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, etc.)
Poet and critic are
interdependent
Criticism
a disinterested endeavour
to learn and propagate the best that is known and
thought in the world
Disinterested, as opposed to uninterested
, signifies
a critical approach that is removed, objective,
and free from all political agendas. (cf. Kant’s
idea of purposeless purpose)
Arnold’s view is such that canonical works are
aesthetically superior and could be shown to be
so by objective, disinterested criticism.
What did Arnold’s theoretical reasoning emphasize
Arnold’s theoretical reasoning increased the
emphasis on the importance and centrality of
literary criticism.
What did critical reading start focusing on
Critical reading started focusing on the
properties of the text in and of itself.
T.S. Eliot
Poet and critic,
who was awarded the
Nobel Prize
for literature in1948.
The Wasteland is
a poetic icon of
literary modernism.
Eliot replaced the Romantic emphasis on
spontaneity, originality, and novelty with a new
focus on
history, culture, and tradition.
Writing means being conscious both of
the pastness
of the past and its presentness
Literary maturity is conveyed through
the
writer’s sense of the past, confidence in the
present and no doubt of the future
Literary creativeness
has to do with maintaining
an unconscious balance between tradition and
originality.
Tradition “cannot be inherited”, but must be
“obtained by great labour”
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.
For Eliot, poetry is an
artistic process rather than a
subjective perception.
Objective correlative
refers to a set of objects,
situation, or chain of
events that correlate to
an internal emotion.
The poet is conceived as a site of the fusion
between
the external and the internal.
Both Arnold and Eliot increasingly turn their
attention away from
artists to ideas about art.
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.
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.
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.
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.
