Ancient and Modern Criticism

Dr. Bhagyashree S. Varma

Associate Professor
Department of English
University of Mumbai
 Socrates - 469 B.C.
•Contemporaries: Aristophanes, Xenophon and Plato-
Married Xanthippe,- Lamprocles, Sophroniscus and
Menexenus were his three sons.
• The first Non-conformist to the traditions so revered by
Athenian society - Stayed ugly, long-haired, and walked
barefoot with a stick. chose to live in poverty - did not
accept money –for teaching youths-was a bad influence
on them -encouraged them to beat their own parents into
submission.
• Many oligarchs who governed Athens unsuccessfully
forbade Socrates from talking to men under thirty. In the
end, that led to Socrates' execution. In 399 B.C., by trial
for irreverence. sentenced to death by drinking a beverage
of the poisonous plant hemlock.
• (Socratic Method of Teaching)
 Plato’s Criticism
• -Gorgias, Apology, and The Republic.

• In Gorgias, the Sicilian sophist and rhetorician featured in the

dialogue, Socrates speaks with Gorgias concerning the nature of
rhetoric as compared with philosophy; and his pupil Polus.
Socrates’ distaste for democracy– the words demos “people” and
kratos “rule” conjoined together to mean, literally, “rule by the
people” the Athenian model and his writings in the Socratic
dialogues
• (Friedrich Nietzsche noted: “Insanity in individuals is something
rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”) As
a rhetorician would be more capable of persuading a crowd of
ignorant people on the subject of health than even a doctor,
masters of rhetoric proclaim they have wisdom in areas they have
no expertise in. (the men of the jury felt that Socrates had
committed things that were falsities (Apology 17a-19e). A wise and
noble philosopher was put to death by people who had been
persuaded wrongfully by skilled, ill-intentioned rhetoricians)
 Plato on Poetry
• Plato's three objections - poetry is not ethical,
philosophical or pragmatic.
• not ethical – promotes undesirable passions,
• Not philosophical – offers no true knowledge,
• Not pragmatic - no educational value as is inferior to
other fine arts.
• condemns art in all forms including literature or poetry
• advocates the spoken word over the written word
• ranks imitation (mimetic representation) on a lower plane
than narrative, even though his own works read like
scripts (the Republic is written in dialogue form with
characters doing all the talking).
 Poetry as Imitation
• Imitation of reality is not in itself bad, but imitation without
understanding and reason is.
• Plato felt that poetry, like all forms of art, appeals to the inferior part
of the soul, the irrational, emotional cowardly part.
• The reader of poetry is seduced into feeling undesirable emotions.
• To Plato, an appreciation of poetry is incompatible with an
appreciation of reason, justice, and the search for Truth.
• To him drama is the most dangerous form of literature because the
author is imitating things that he/she is not and that no words are
strong enough to condemn drama.
• Plato felt that all the world's evils derived from one source: a faulty
understanding of reality.
• Miscommunication, confusion and ignorance were facets of a
corrupted comprehension of what Plato always strived for - Truth.
 Theory of Forms/Ideas
• An object in this world - a copy of a divine and Ideal Form which is
the truest and most perfect exhibit of the object as fashioned by God
• So the world is removed from the truth by at least one degree.
• Further, we generally do not have a proper apprehension of the true
value and perfection of any particular object as an appearance,
• The perceived experience of an object is twice-removed from the
truth.
• Lastly, it is these appearances of objects that artists such as
painters and poets seek to imitate. Their imitations, then, are a long
way off the truth, says Plato: they are thrice-removed.(597e in Book
X. )
• poetry is so distanced from truth implies that poetry is contemptible
only if we also adopt the moral premise that knowledge is virtuous,
depends on the moral equation of knowledge, truth, and the good.
 Plato - as moralist
• considers poetry useful if it helps one to become a better
person, and if it does not, it should be expelled from the
community.
• Plato's question in Book X is the intellectual status of
literature. (Utility – what is the use?)
• He states that, the good poet cannot compose well
unless he knows his subject, and he who has not this
knowledge can never be a poet (Adams 33).
• A man is not to be reverenced more than the truth
(Adams 31). Stories that are untrue have no value, and
no untrue story should be told.
• Plato says that imitation is three degrees removed from
the truth. That nothing can be learned from imitative
poetry. (overwhelmingly negative).
 Objections My Lord!
• literature that portrays the gods behaving in immoral
ways should be kept away from children, (as
pornography in today’s set up, censorship against
pornography is that viewing pornography may influence
people to commit violent, demeaning or anti-social acts).
• Another objection - portraying either male dominance or
female exploitation. People argue that this should not be
the way the world works, therefore it is not the Truth.
• These claims sound much like the claims that Plato is
trying to make when he asserts that certain poetry
should be kept out of the hands of children. While the
power of censorship can be abused, Plato seemed to
believe that his stance is justified because he is trying to
make children grow to be good, moral individuals.
 Objections overruled !!

• Plato would only allow hymns to the gods and praises to

famous men.
• Plato does not want literature to corrupt the mind; he wants it
to display images of beauty and grace.
• Plato's views may be deemed narrow-minded by today's
society, but one must remember that Plato (lived over 2000
years ago), wrote Republic with the best intentions for the
people of his time.
• Plato's goal was to state what he judged to be the guidelines
for a better human existence.
• The merit in Plato's arguments is demonstrated by the fact his
philosophies on poetry are still studied by scholars around the
world today.
 Aristotle(384-322 B.C.)
• Joined Athens when 18,and remained with Plato for next
20 years of his life and the next 8 years as the tutor of
Alexzander
• returned to Athens and kept a school in the Lyceum for
twelve years. (died of disease (322), after a life of three-
and-sixty years.)
• The Poetics of Aristotle is the earliest critical treatise
dealing with dramatic practice and theory.
• Influence over the dramatists of all European and many
other nations through its important contributions to
dramatic theory and criticism (incomplete form, the many
corrupt portions of the text, its compact and elliptical
style, it has been constantly misinterpreted, misquoted,
and misunderstood).
 Poetics
• The famous terms – Unities, even “Tragic Hero”.
• Mimesis or "imitation", "representation"
• Catharsis or, variously, "purgation", "purification",
"clarification"
• Peripeteia or "reversal"
• Anagnorisis or "recognition", "identification"
• Hamartia or "miscalculation" (as "tragic flaw")
• Mythos or "plot"
• Ethos or "character"
• Dianoia or "thought", "theme"
• Lexix or "diction", "speech" or "melody"
• Opsis or "spectacle"
 Aristotle Versus Plato
• Against Plato's theory of forms - Aristotle
appears to have elaborated and criticized a
number of arguments for the existence of
Platonic forms, results intolerable to Platonists
• Aristotle argues, if they establish anything, it is
the existence of his own brand of universals and
not Platonic forms.
• Aristotle correctly places nature as the starting
point, essentially laying the groundwork for the
scientific method.
• Reversal of Plato’s theory of Ideas by rationalist
vision
 Defining Tragedy
• Drama – defines tragedy as a representation of a
serious, complete action which has magnitude, in
embellished speech, with each of its elements [used]
separately in the [various] parts [of the play];
[represented] by people acting and not by narration;
accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis
of such emotions.
• By "embellished speech", I mean that which has rhythm
and melody, i.e. song; by "with its elements separately", I
mean that some [parts of it] are accomplished only by
means of spoken verses, and others again by means of
song (1449b25-30).[7]
 Mimesis as Representation
• Mimesis as Representation - natural to human beings
from childhood. They differ from the other animals in this.
Aristotle finds that children naturally learn about the
world through representations.
• Delight in seeing images, as they observe, and infer
what each thing is, (found a positive impact that poetry
has on human life)-that it aids transition in children and
adults alike from ignorance to knowledge.
• Aristotle goes further to explain the relative importance
of poetry in comparison to other subjects, namely history.
Poetry involves probability and necessity – history –the
past events, hence poetry has a encompassing message
for all and any of society whereas history has a narrow
specific scope.
 Poetry and Catharsis
• Aristotle agrees with Plato that poetry does inspire great
emotion, but finds that the sharing and expression of emotion
is a type of katharsis. A katharsis allows the flushing of
emotion, for a type of release, and can even result in the
clarification of moral, ethical, and intellectual beliefs (88).
• Therefore, the expression of emotion is an act of emotional
liberation, not one of degradation and emotional weakening.
• Emotional involvement in poetry causes people to become
more moral, ethical, and intellectual by the release of emotion,
thereby improving their personal lives.
• Overall, Aristotle believes that poetry improves the general
society whereas Plato believes instead that poetry harms
society
 Poet as Genius/Madman
• Aristotle agrees with Plato that the poet himself must be
insane or else a genius to produce proper work
• Gestures should be an integral part of the plot, and are
best represented by those who are actually experiencing
the emotions meant to be depicted. It is therefore that
"he who is agitated or furious [can represent] agitation
and anger most truthfully.
• For this reason, the art of poetry belongs to the genius
or the madman; of these, the first are adaptable, the
second can step outside themselves" (104), meaning
that the genius can experience these emotions when
needed but remain in conscious reality whereas the
madman becomes totally lost to his rational self when
immersed in his emotions.
 The Genres of “Poetry"

• Means - language, rhythm, and harmony,

used separately or in combination
their objects
• agents ("good" or "bad" ...) - human characters who have emotions
(and bring moral to actions they do - "good" person kills child =
remorse? X "bad" person kills child = just shows his power?)
• things of daily life (skull in Hamlet, cake in slapstick comedies...)
who have no emotions (humans put emotions on things - girl's father
is killed by sword, girl hates swords) ...

• actions ("virtuous" or "vicious" ...) - agents cause and are influenced

by actions

• their modes of representation

 Cassius Longinus(c. 213-273 AD).
“Dionysius,” Longinus
• On the Sublime – (44 chapters) a treatise on
aesthetics - a work of literary criticism - written in
an epistolary form –(Final part dealing with
public speaking is lost)
• On the Sublime is a compendium of literary
exemplars, with about 50 authors spanning
1,000 years mentioned or quoted from Homer
and other figures of Greek culture
• Longinus refers to a passage from Genesis,
which is quite unusual for the first century:-A
similar effect was achieved by the lawgiver of
the Jews
 Divine and Moral Consciousness
• for he both understood and gave expression to
the power of the divinity as it deserved
• 'God said' 'Let there be light.' And there was.
'Let there be earth.' And there was.
• Given his positive reference to Genesis,
Longinus has been assumed to be either a
Hellenized Jew or readily familiar with the
Jewish culture.
• As such, Longinus emphasizes that, to be a
truly great writer, authors must have “moral
excellence”.
 Sublime Writer
• As for social subjectivity, Longinus
acknowledges that complete liberty promotes
spirit and hope;
• “never did a slave become an orator”.
• luxury and wealth leads to a decay in eloquence
• eloquence being the goal of the Sublime writer.
• The Sublime-Longinus critically applauds and
condemns certain literary works as examples of
good or bad styles of writing.
• Longinus ultimately promotes an "elevation of
style" and an essence of "simplicity".
 Sublimity as Style
• The concept of the Sublime is generally
accepted to refer to a style of writing that
elevates itself "above the ordinary".
• Finally, Longinus sets out five sources of
sublimity: "great thoughts, strong
emotions, certain figures of thought and
speech, noble diction, and dignified word
arrangement".
 The effects of the Sublime

• loss of rationality,
• an alienation leading to identification with
the creative process of the artist
• a deep emotion mixed in pleasure and
exaltation.
• An example of sublime is a poem by
Sappho, the so-called Ode to Jealousy,
defined as a 'Sublime ode'.
 Sublime as evasion from reality-?
• A writer’s goal is not so much to express empty
feelings, but to arouse emotion in his audience.
• the Sublime leads the listeners not to
persuasion, but to ecstasy:
• for what is wonderful always goes together with
a sense of dismay, and prevails over what is
only convincing or delightful, since persuasion is
within everyone’s grasp
• the Sublime, giving to speech an invincible
power and strength, rises above every listener".
 Spiritualizing Creativity
• literature could model a soul, a soul could pour itself out
into a work of art.
• the Sublime is a mechanism of recognition of the
greatness of a spirit, of the depth of an idea, of the
power of speech.
• Longinus, beleiving that it’s a part of human nature to
achieve greatness, affirms that "sublimity" might be
found in any or every literary work.
• ends by creating a new idea within the entire framework
of aesthetics. not only a text of literary inquiry, but also
one of ethical dissertation, since the Sublime becomes
the product of a great soul
 QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS,
known as Horace
• born in southern Italy in 65 b.c. educated in
Rome, studying under Orbilius (a grammarian),
and later in Athens - encountered Greek poets
who profoundly influenced his work
• Horace's poetry - known for its wit,
• Poetica became a style manual for poets of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
• was required reading in British schools
• Horace's doctrine of "pleasure and profit"
 Politics and Poetry
• On the heels of Julius Caesar's assassination in
44 b.c., Horace joined Brutus's forces, traveling
to Asia Minor and rising to the rank of tribune
despite his humble background.
• His military exploits were short-lived, returned to
Rome after Brutus's defeat at Philippi in
November 42 b.c. the time during which he
began to write poetry.
• The poetry written during this period impressed
Virgil and other Roman poets, who eventually
introduced Horace to Maecenas, with whom he
formed a lasting friendship.
 Works of Horace
• The works of Horace are:
• Odes (or Carmina) (23-13 BC)
• Epodes (30 BC)
• Satires, in Latin Sermones (35 and 20 BC)
• Ars Poetica or The Epistle to the Pisones (18 BC)
• Epistles (20 and 14 BC)
• Carmen Saeculare (17 BC)
• The Odes and Epodes -indebted to the Greek poets,
especially those of the sixth and seventh centuries and
of the Hellenistic period, including Archilochus,
Hipponax, Alcaeus, and Pindar.
 The Ars Poetica
• The Ars Poetica - best-known work.
• Structured as a conversational collection of
thoughts on a number of literary matters,
• influence on a diverse group of authors including
Ben Johnson, Dante, St. Augustine, and
Alexander Pope.
• after periods of interest and neglect was
honored and studied at academies, a rebirth of
interest during the Renaissance and continuing
through the nineteenth century
 The Art of Poetry
• The Art of Poetry" or "On the Nature of Poetry". Archibald
Macleish’s modernist entry, ending with the well-known
couplet "A poem should not mean/But be").
• Three of the most notable examples,
• “In mdeias res", or "into the middle of things"; describes
a popular narrative technique that appears frequently in
ancient epics
• "bonus dormitat Homerus" or "good Homer Nods"; an
indication that even the most skilled poet can make
continuity errors
• “ut Pictura Poesisi", or "as is painting so is poetry", by
which Horace meant that poetry "imaginative texts"
 Purpose of Poetry
• True Poetry – “teacheth and delighteth”
• devices of metalanguage.
• The definition of "ars poetica" in the past decade
extends to defining techniques of rhetoric
• writing about writing, singing about singing,
thinking about thinking, etc.
• Stemming first from poetry on poetry, "ars
poetica" as a literary device to enhance imagery,
understanding, or profundity.
Ancient Greco-Roman Criticism

• Plato ---------Poetry
• Aristotle-----------Drama
• Longinus----------Sublimity
(Style)
• Horace ---------Purpose