Understanding Thomas Weiskel's The Romantic Sublime
In order to understand Weiskel's argument on the sublime, it would be helpful to briefly review the influential treatises on the sublime by Longinus, Immanuel Kant and Edmund. Longinus understands the sublime as intrinsically related to linguistics, as being achieved mainly through language and literature. The "linguistic sublime" causes one to transcend oneself. When one perceives an experience as producing ecstasy, he asserts, that experience can be considered sublime. According to Longinus, this effect can be achieved through powerful rhetoric; he then examines the sublime nature of the rhetoric of many great writers, including Homer and Sappho. He also considers the sublime to exist in political oration, theorizing "those personages, presenting themselves to us and inflaming our ardor and as it were illumining our path, will carry our minds in a mysterious way to the high standards of subliminity which are within us" (84).
Longinus cautions, however, that writers who strive to achieve sublimity often fail, instead creating "expressions . . . which are not sublime but high-flown" (77). He further elaborates that it is nearly impossible for the common writer to achieve sublimity through rhetoric, stating that, "While tumidity desires to transcend the limits of the sublime, the defect which is termed puerility is the direct antithesis of elevation." Writers easily fall prey to this error, Longinus explains: "[W]hile they aim at the uncommon and elaborate and most of all at the attractive, they drift unawares into the tawdry and affected" (77).
Longinus' theory focuses mainly on a sublime that results from a thing or event that possesses some type of positive literary effect. For Longinus, one is "uplifted by the true sublime [ . . . ] filled with joy and vaunting, as though it had itself produced what it has heard" (78). Edmund Burke, alternatively, makes a distinction between what is beautiful (and pleasant) and the sublime, concluding that an experience that might be considered terrible may instead inspire a peculiar sense of pleasure, a delight derived from terror. It is Burke's opinion that human experience with a negative connotation tends to stimulate the sublime.
Burke proposes that the sublime is "[w]hatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger . . . any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror" (36). Burke's sublime is achieved through a type of indirect or derived terror, in which one experiences pleasure in the face of pain or terror.
In this section of the book, Eliezer tells of three fathers and three sons. He speaks of Rabbi Eliahou and his son, of the father whose son killed him for a piece of bread, and finally of his own father and himself. What words does Eliezer use to describe his response to each of the first two stories? How do these stories affect the way he reacts to his father’s illness? To his father’s death?
Critics of Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato have examined its narrative technique (see Raymond) and its position in literature as metafiction (see Herzog). Still other critics have commented on the motif of time (see McWilliams) and the theme and structure (see Vannatta). On the last point, critics find the structure of the novel is fragmented to reveal the nature of the United States' involvement in Vietnam. Unfortunately, this fragmentation makes the novel appear structurally weak. Critics have found no unifying element to the parts to affirm the sense of wholeness readers feel after completing O'Brien's novel. Nevertheless, the reader senses that the seemingly random construction of the novel serves to underscore the random nature of the Vietnam war. However, to lightly dismiss O'Brien's organization as simply fragmentary does great disservice to this American author. A critical examination of a traditional element found in American Literature since its inception--the symbolic use of Nature--unifies Going After Cacciato and places the work firmly in the Romantic tradition. Just as Romanticists have always relied upon Nature to unify and add substantial depth to their novels so, too, has O'Brien. Specifically, a different element of Nature appears in each of the sections of the novel. The novel divides into three distinct parts: the observation post chapters, the recollected history chapters, and the chasing Cacciato chapters. In the observation post chapters, Nature is represented by the sea. In the recollected history chapters, Nature is represented by the land and the fresh water. In the chasing Cacciato chapters, Nature becomes ...
Another magical realist element is that when Tita was born, Nacha swept up the residue the tears had left on the red stone floor. On the floor was enough salt to fill a ten-pound sack that was used for cooking and lasted a long time (7). This element is more magical than sublime because this happening can not occur. However, it is a good example of sublime literature because it illustrates Longinus' notion of accumulation as a feature of sublime language. The salt from Tita's birth definitely dealt with accumulation.
During the Holocaust many people were severely tortured and murdered. The holocaust caused the death of six million Jewish people, as well as the death of 5 million non-Jewish people. All of the people, who died during this time, died because of the Nazis’: a large hate group composed of extremely Ignoble, licentious, and rapacious people. They caused the prisoners to suffer physically and mentally; thus, causing them to lose all hope of ever being rescued. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie went through so much depression, and it caused him to struggle with surviving everyday life in a concentration camp. While Elie stayed in the concentration camp, he saw so many people get executed, abused, and even tortured. Eventually, Elie lost all hope of surviving, but he still managed to survive. This novel is a perfect example of hopelessness: it does not offer any hope. There are so many pieces of evidence that support this claim throughout the entire novel. First of all, many people lost everything that had value in their life; many people lost the faith in their own religion; and the tone of the story is very depressing.
Each literary work portrays something different, leaving a unique impression on all who read that piece of writing. Some poems or stories make one feel happy, while others are more solemn. This has very much to do with what the author is talking about in his or her writing, leaving a bit of their heart and soul in the work. F. Scott Fitzgerald, when writing The Great Gatsby, wrote about the real world, yet he didn’t paint a rosy picture for the reader. The same can be said about T.S. Eliot, whose poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,” presents his interpretation of hell. Both pieces of writing have many similarities, but the most similar of them all is the tone of each one.
I frankly confess that I have, as a general thing, but little enjoyment of it, and that it has never seemed to me to be, as it were, a first-rate literary form. . . . But it is apt to spoil two good things – a story and a moral, a meaning and a form; and the taste for it is responsible for a large part of the forcible-feeding writing that has been inflicted upon the world. The only cases in whi...
“Out of the north deep waves rolled down upon the island. They broke against the rocks and roared into the caves, sending up white sprays of water. Before night a storm would certainly strike” (O’Dell, 19). This passage from Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins describes the Ocean that surrounds the island and characters in the story. In this description the narrator, Karana, shows the reader that the people on the island fear and respect the power of the Ocean. The Ocean is depicted throughout the novel as something enormous and powerful. The way the Ocean is seen demonstrates an example of the Burkeian Sublime. According to Burke, the Sublime is an experience that comes from authority and power. A common example for the Burkeian Sublime is looking at the power of mountains. Mountains are Sublime because they’re large in size, and have the power to kill people. Therefore, through looking at Burke’s requirements for the Sublime the conclusion is made that Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins contains the Burkeian Sublime.
Burke, Edmund. "Proportion Further Considered". A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909-1917 (New York: Bartleby.com, 2001). http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/305.html
Common psychological disturbances in the stages of making a serial killer are seen in childhood and are usually based upon mental and psychological abuse endured by a child.
We have spent a good deal of this semester concentrating on the sublime. We have asked what (in nature) is sublime, how is the sublime described and how do different writers interpret the sublime. A sublime experience is recognizable by key words such as 'awe', 'astonishment' and 'terror', feelings of insignificance, fractured syntax and the general inability to describe what is being experienced. Perception and interpretation of the sublime are directly linked to personal circumstance and suffering, to spiritual beliefs and even expectation (consider Wordsworth's disappointment at Mont Blanc). It has become evident that there is a transition space between what a traveler experiences and what he writes; a place wherein words often fail but the experience is intensified, even understood by the traveler. This space, as I have understood it, is the imagination. In his quest for spiritual identity Thomas Merton offers the above quotation to illustrate what he calls 'interpenetration' between the self and the world. As travel writers engage nature through their imagination, Merton's description of the 'inner ground' is an appropriate one for the Romantic conception of the imagination. ...
In 2008, Prop 2 in California was supported by groups such as the HSUS and other groups. Prop 2 has enforced “… Packer/processors, grain producers, suppliers and those in the business of selling food, must recognize this, the organization focuses on different types of animals, such as: dolphins, whales, cats and dogs (Lovvorn & Perry, 2009).” Prop 2 was a law concerning animal holdings. It declared that animal holdings, such as cages, must be large enough for the animals to have room to extend their legs, move around, and not be cramped.. The Humane Society of United States and PETA supported the organizations to inform the people on the sidelines about the different tactics one could take to save the animals. The Humane Society of United States used the ability to spy as a tactic. Therefore the organization used a small pen sized video camera. In the The Barnyard Strategist, “The HSUS released the video in San Bernardino County, district attorney, the story made national headlines.” This can be related to the movie we watched in class “The Cove,” in which a group of men broke into a slaughterhouse of dolphins and whales to catch the ones who were slaughtering the animals. They did not know about the cameras. This helped provide footage to show how the animals were actually treated. The HSUS used merging different organizations such as the smaller animal welfare groups together, this was able to help the organization increase their money to help the company be able to inform others about animal abuse. Pacelle’s strategy consisted of creating a ballot measure that will allow those who are vegetarian and vegan to help reform the ballots. They use media to help get their point across by using a male who is vegetarian who strokes...
In Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher, the character Roderick Usher exhibits severe mental illness. Most of Poe’s writings are psychological in nature. The Fall of the House of Usher is a great example of this. Poe’s life was filled with many tragic events. The unpleasant outcome of his early years resulted in a great Gothic Romantic writer. He is a master of writing psychological thrillers, adding suspense and mystery in his stories. The topics of his writings are a concoction of unpleasant, austere, and grotesque things, thus the reader can be left feeling squeamish and susceptible. We are drawn into Poe’s stories by our intrinsic human nature of curiosity and intrigue. This paper gives examples of Poe’s literary style as we examine Roderick’s metal state through his words and appearance.
When cell phones were first introduced, all you could do was call others and talk for half an hour. It was like a brick and took ten hours to charge. It also cost $3995. That’s a lot more than most of today’s cell phones. Even, though it was a very basic phone, it began impacting the world. Now, you could call your relatives and actually talk with them without being next to them. Parents gave their kids cell phones to stay in touch. Now you can contact anyone through your mobile phone in multiple ways. You can text, call, facetime or message someone through social media. Cell phones abilities
Behavior is sometimes defined as the response of an individual, group, or species to its environment. Parents, girlfriends, sisters, brothers, and peers can all affect a person's behavior. Not everybody necessarily will have the behavior of a serial killer. In this paper, I will attempt to show the difference between the psychopath and the psychotic. Explain how the environment, upbringing, and treatment of serial killers led them to become who they are today.
One of the things that cell phones have changed drastically is the way we communicate with others. With the birth of cell phones eventually came the invention of text messaging, or “texting.” Texting is sending simple messages over the air to another cell phone. People these days, especially the younger generation, find it much easier and quicker to text a person rather than call them or talk to them face to face. “Text messaging is the premier choice” says Jaletta Desmond, an expert on how cell phones have changed us over time. The reason why most of the younger generation prefers texting rather than talking is because they don’t value talking out loud one on one as much as the older generation does. Another reason why texting is the first choice for most people is that it gives a sense of privacy. No one can put their ear to the door and hear your texting conversation. In this day in age, we’ve made it nearly impossible to get in touch with others without having a cell phone on you. Cell phones have just become p...