Transformations of Prose

Question 1

Hazlitt drops the essayist’s mask, and increasingly, indeed, any

Answer 1

editorial persona

Question 2

As Wordsworth and Coleridge in poetry, so Lamb in prose strove to trace the

Answer 2

stream of consciousness through its divagating associations

Question 3

Looked at broadly, the Romantic essay can be seen to have its roots in 17th-c. georgic as well as essay. In particular, it developed two features of georgic:

Answer 3

local expressive decorum; lofty digression

Question 4

“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,–that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost” Name author, work, and compare to two others.

Answer 4

Emerson, “Self-Reliance.” Compare Blake’s “firm perswasion” and Kant’s notion of the universal and necessary truth.

Question 5

Name the author and work: “In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this.”

Answer 5

Emerson, “Self-Reliance”