The Criticism Of The Sublime

Shelley uses the way water flows through a riverbank to symbolize the way our thought flows through our mind ‘The source of human thought its tribute brings, Of water, - with a sound of half its own, Such as a feeble brook will oft assume, In the wild woods, among the mountains lone, Where waterfalls around it leap for ever’ (Shelley 871). Thoughts rush into the mind filling the brain, similarly as water rushes down a riverbank, filling the riverbank until it can hold no more. ‘Within this mind human thought brings its tribute, that is, giving the external world what it owes to it, like a brook flowing as a tributary into a mighty river’ (Portnoy). The beginning of the second stanza, Shelley states ‘Thus thou, Ravine of Arve – dark, deep Ravine – Thou many-coloured, many-voice vale’ (Shelley 871) to further symbolize the way our thoughts flow through our mind, just as the River of Arve flows through this ravine. Shelley ‘turns from his own private inward musing to look at the scene in front of him, the ravine of the River Arve at the foot of Mount Blanc’ (Portnoy). Shelley uses the many colours reflecting off the River Arve ‘Thou many-colour, many-voice vale’ (Shelley 871) to symbolize the way our many different memories can affect the thoughts within our minds. The final line of the fifth stanza ends the poem by questioning the vacancy found in silence and solitude ‘And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea, If to the human mind’s

During this class, I have learned much that I was surprised of some of the information that was delivered. While I slightly knew what I might have expected to see during the course, the concepts that were introduction were fascinating and I was shocked that I didn’t know a few beforehand. One such important concept was the idea of the sublime.

Although Edward Burtynsky’s photography has often been analyzed in relation to the sublime, this aesthetic framework does not account for all that his photography attempts to accomplish. In this paper I will first briefly assess some of recent writing that has positioned Burtynsky’s work in relation to different characterizations of the sublime, such as the toxic sublime. I will then analyze the historical underpinnings of what constitutes the sublime and its concurrent affects. Finally, I will examine why viewing the photographs of Oil solely in relation to the sublime is problematic.

Name: Nhat Ho Mr. Erwin Philosophy 432 30/10/2015 Hero in High Noon In many Western films, the roles of courage, women, integrity, community , individualism, Indians, landscape, and the wilderness were often presented in a similar thematic way, for the directors and their audiences shared a common view of the Old West and shared the same basic values. Courage, integrity, and individualism were greatly admired, women were admirable creatures but needed to be rescued quite frequently, and communities needed to be united in order to survive hostile Indians and an unforgiving wilderness. These values all reflect the idea of Sublime, Jonathan Locke’s view of property, Thomas Hobbes’ conception of human nature and human society, and Aristotle’s

At the time Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, radical changes were occurring throughout Europe. During this time, there were great advances in science and technology and the Romantic Movement came about due to this new found industrialism. It is Shelley’s feelings about these radical scientific and technological advancements which she had portrayed through Frankenstein that leaves the readers with an overwhelming impression of the dangers of scientific hubris when they have come away from the book. The Romantic Movement itself was a reaction to Europe’s new found industrialism and had quickly developed into the basis for a new society.

George Stubbs’ Horse Frightened by a Lion image (1770) encompasses many different gothic conventions which can be seen in the four-piece narrative sequence, where we are invited to imagine the pain that is going to be inflicted onto the horse by the lion. The images can be closely linked to Edmund Burke’s ideas on the Sublime and the Beautiful which are explored in The Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (Burke, 1757) where Burke discusses ideas regarding the representation of beauty and darkness and when compared to Stubbs’ images we are able to see that it can be juxtaposed between the motif of the horse, which represents the immaculate, harmoniously pure and organised Augustan art and the

Walt Whitman loved to experiment with form when it came to poetry. He used his verses to show his complete adoration of all things wild, and our role as beings in this infinitely complex and thought-provoking universe in which we exist. To say he had a bit of a “nature crush” would be an understatement – Whitman goes in to great detail of his love for the wildness and often describes his emotions in a viscerally sexual manner, using poetic devices to underline his immense feelings for environment and hammer in the imagery to readers of how majestic the world appears to him. “Romantic” poets loved the outdoors – if it wasn’t contained in four walls and a roof, they were all about it. They loved to praise the innate details that made our planet so incredible,

The quest for the ideal is a phenomenon that many people attempt to achieve. As we all know, the quest for the ideal is difficult and complicated by personal experience. The poems, “The Story” by Karen Connelly and the “The Love Song of J.Aflred Prufrock”, by T.S Elliot, as well as the essay “Kant’s Beauty and the Sublime” by Maureen Rousseau explore the peril inherent in the quest for the ideal, which is that in our search for beauty we risk encountering the sublime. The danger of the sublime is that we cannot comprehend the magnitude of the realms of things that are sublime. We ask ourselves why someone would want to risk encountering the sublime. Well, with great risk comes great reward and that is the beauty we

In the short stories, both Hawthorne and Poe communicate the Romantic and Gothic element of the unachievable aspect of the sublime, which expresses the relationship of creation between each text. In “The Artist of the Beautiful”, Owen, an insightful watchmaker, devotes his entire life to replicate the beauty in nature and strives to perfect it into the form of a mechanical butterfly. Owen succeeds in his creation of “Nature’s ideal butterfly”, but this comes only for a short spell before Peter Hovenden’s grandson destroys the beautiful machine (Hawthorne, “The Artist” 1153). Hawthorne notes how “the painter leaves half his conception on the canvas to sadden us with its imperfect beauty, and goes to picture forth the whole, if be no irreverence to say

They are living in a moment of revolution, of innovation, of speed and steam; and they are longing for returning to past ages where everything seems easier, like the Ancient Rome or Greece. But especially they are going to look for that innocence and purity in their inner souls, in something that everybody has had the pleasure to experience. For the Romantic poets childhood is vital, for they understood that the child has a wider overview of the world given that he has not lost the innocence that characterizes him; there is something magical, pure and divine in a child’s vision of the world and that is what the Romantics are longing

Burke’s examination of all seven qualities of the sublime relates to sight: terror, power, vastness, infinity, succession and uniformity relates to what can be seen, while obscurity relates to what cannot be seen. In addition to the content of his writing, Burke’s use of language and diction, for example, with words and phrases like “[l]ook” (Burke 5) and “[w]ithout all doubt” (3) (which implies clarity) also reinforces the element of ‘sight’ in his text. For Burke, the power of the sublime object or landscape lies in its ability to overwhelm the viewer’s mental faculties and impose upon them feelings of the sublime. Here, the viewer is positioned as a subject upon which the sublime landscape impresses its image and sublimity, rather than one that is actively participating in the creation of this sublime experience. This passivity is highlighted by Burke who states that the sublime requires some form of mediation of “distance” (4) and remoteness. Following the explication of the observer’s passive role in the sublime experience, this essay will move on to affirm the subordinate

This poem is unique and more patently autobiographic unlike other romantic poems that were written during his era in the early 18th century by other fellow writers. Byron’s poem is entirely focused on the beauty and the fascination that he endures with the ocean. The title of the poem indicates the subject of the poem; it also has the first literary device that is seen throughout this poem. The word apostrophe is when the writer speaks to the ocean as if it can hear and respond. As a child Byron becomes aware of realities imperfections but the skepticism of his disillusionment coexisted with a lifelong propensity to seek ideal perfection in all of life experiences (Marchand). In the first stanza Byron expresses and underlines the feelings, fascination and his overwhelming love that he endures with the ocean.

The sublime describes the awe and shock that people experience when they see something that is enormous in size. David Rodgers summarizes the works of a man named Longinus, who is credited as the first person to define the sublime. Longinus defines it as “differing from beauty and evoking more intense emotions by vastness, a quality that inspires awe. Whereas beauty may be found in the small, the smooth, the light and the everyday, the sublime is vast, irregular, obscure and superhuman” (Rodgers, 1996, pg. 889). He explains that the sublime is more than just beauty because the sublime captures the massive size of these objects that creates wonderment. Along with Longinus writing about the vast and sheer awe that the sublime creates, Immanuel Kant also explains his definition of the sublime. Kant explains that “the physical properties, whether actually or imaginative perceived, that were generally accorded to the sublime by 18th-century writers, were vastness, obscurity and irregularity, all of which could evoke a degree of terror” (Rodgers, 1996 pg. 890). He also agreed that the impressive size of things helped make them sublime. Overall, the sublime explains the wonderment and awe that someone feels when looking at something that is huge and impressive.

Robert Frost’s nature poetry occupies a significant place in the poetic arts; however, it is likely Frost’s use of nature is the most misunderstood aspect of his poetry. While nature is always present in Frost’s writing, it is primarily used in a “pastoral sense” (Lynen 1). This makes sense as Frost did consider himself to be a shepherd.