Hello Readers!
This assignment
is a part of internal evaluation of student's academic activity in the
Department of English, MK Bhavnagar University. Here is my assignment.
Name: Rohit
Vyas
Class: Semester
1
Roll No: 29
PG Enrolment
Number: 2069108420200041
E-mail:
rohitvyas277@gmail.com
Course: M.A.
English, at Department of English, M.K. Bhavnagar University
Paper 3 - Literary Theory & Criticism, Unit 1
Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad
Aristotle and Modern
Expressionism
What is
Expressionism?
According
to Wikipedia: Expressionism means
“Expressionism is
a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th
century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective
perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke
moods or ideas. Expressionist artists have sought to express the
meaning of
emotional experience rather than physical reality.”
Express
Yourself
If
you are given an opportunity to express your views on anything, how will you
describe them? Will you take a pen and paper to write your thoughts? Or start
talking about them? Will you take a look at history and reread them? Anyways,
let’s have a quick view over how expressions work and what is the place of
expressionism in human life.
Right
from the childhood we love to cry. Yes, crying is the most natural way to
express emotions and feelings. But as a grown up person how often do you cry?
Or do you remember the last time you cried? Expressions, conveyed through
powerful manners and behavior.
According
to Aristotle, Art must have the element of delight and pleasure. Any form of
drama is incomplete without delight and pleasure. Plato’s objection was well defined by the term
mimesis.
Nowadays
the forms of expressions are Facebook, WhatsApp etcetera are new tools for
expressing our emotions which can be fitted in the argument of Aristotle’s
definitions. Now let’s have some glimpse how these latest platforms are
influencing expressionism.
Tik-Tok
This
is a digital platform of making short videos which convey some beautiful
message or it can also be made for entertainment purpose only. Now these genres
are being evaluated by new generation in much different way. They immediately
take some message or moral from these videos. Videos of dancing or about
generating laughter also best fits in the terms of Aristotle’s definition of
aesthetic delight.
WhatsApp
It
is basically known for the communication purpose but still people use this
Instant Messaging tool for sharing their written articles and stories. Some
stories, which convey the message of morality and life lessons. This can be
read through the concept of literary criticism given by Plato and Aristotle.
Plato’s
Views
Plato says that art being the
imitation of the actual is removed from the Truth. It only gives the likeness
of a thing in concrete, and the likeness is always less than real. But Plato
fails to explain that art also gives something more which is absent in the
actual. The artist does not simply reflect the real in the manner of a mirror.
Art cannot be slavish imitation of reality. Literature is not the exact
reproduction of life in all its totality or fullness. To some extent, it is the
representation of selected events and characters which are necessary in a
coherent action for the realization of the artist’s purpose. He even exalts,
idealizes and imaginatively recreates a world which has its own meaning and
beauty. These elements, present in art, are absent in the raw and rough
real. While a poet creates something less than reality he at the same times
creates something more as well. He puts an idea of the reality which he
perceives in an object. This ‘more’, this intuition and perception, is the aim
of the artist. Artistic creation cannot be fairly criticized with such a base
that it is not the creation in concrete terms of things and beings. Thus
considered, it is not taking us away from the Truth but leading us to the
essential reality of life.
Once more he argues that art
is bad because it does not inspire virtue, does not teach morality. But is
teaching the function of art? Is it the aim of the artist? The function of art
is to provide aesthetic delight, communicate experience, express emotions and
represent life. It should never be confused with the function of ethics which
is simply to teach morality. If an artist succeeds in pleasing us in the
aesthetic sense, he is a good artist. If he fails in doing so, he is a bad
artist. There is no other criterion to judge his worth. R.A.Scott -James
observes: “Morality teaches. Art does not attempt to teach. It merely asserts
it is thus or thus that life is perceived to be. That is my bit of reality,
says the artist. Take it or leave it – draw any lessons you like from it – that
is my account of things as they are – if it has any value to you as evidence of
teaching, use it, but that is not my business: I have given you my rendering,
my account, my vision, my dream, my illusion – call it what you will. If there
is any lesson in it, it is yours to draw, not mine to preach.” Similarly,
Plato’s charges on needless lamentations and ecstasies at the imaginary events
of sorrow and happiness encourage the weaker part of the soul and numb the
faculty of reason. These charges are defended by Aristotle in his Theory
of Catharsis. David Daiches summarizes Aristotle’s views in reply
to Plato’s charges in brief: “Tragedy (Art) gives new knowledge, yields
aesthetic satisfaction and produces a better state of mind.”
These views and arguments of
Plato gives us clear idea that how expressionism can be applied in current
times in various ways. He also propounds that tragedy in form of performing art
can be of the single revolution of the sun. There should be unity of time place
and action, and also should meet with the pre described category of mythos,
catharsis, plot, structure, characters, etc.
Plato first judges poetry
from the educational standpoint, later, from the philosophical one and then
from the ethical one. But he does not care to consider it from its own unique
standpoint. He does not define its aims. He forgets that everything should be
judged in terms of its own aims and objectives, its own criteria of merit and
demerit. We cannot fairly maintain that music is bad because it does not paint,
or that painting is bad because it does not sing. Similarly, we cannot say that
poetry is bad because it does not teach philosophy or ethics. If poetry,
philosophy and ethics had identical function, how could they be different subjects?
To denounce poetry because it is not philosophy or ideal is clearly absurd.
Now let’s see what Aristotle
has to say about the theory of mimesis.
Aristotle agrees with Plato
in calling the poet an imitator and creative art, imitation. He imitates one of
the three objects – things as they were/are, things as they are said/thought to
be or things as they ought to be. In other words, he imitates what is past or
present, what is commonly believed and what is ideal. Aristotle believes that
there is natural pleasure in imitation which is an in-born instinct in men. It
is this pleasure in imitation that enables the child to learn his earliest
lessons in speech and conduct from those around him, because there is a pleasure in
doing so. In a grown-up child – a poet, there is another instinct, helping him
to make him a poet – the instinct for harmony and rhythm.
He does not agree with his
teacher in – ‘poet’s imitation is twice removed from reality and hence
unreal/illusion of truth', to prove his point he compares poetry with history.
The poet and the historian differ not by their medium, but the true difference
is that the historian relates ‘what has happened’, the poet, ‘what may/ought to
have happened’ - the ideal. Poetry, therefore, is more philosophical, and a
higher thing than history because history expresses the particular while poetry
tends to express the universal. Therefore, the picture of poetry pleases all
and at all times.
Aristotle does not agree with
Plato in the function of poetry making people weaker and emotional/too
sentimental. For him, catharsis is ennobling and it humbles a
human being.
So far as the moral nature of
poetry is concerned, Aristotle believes that the end of poetry is to please;
however, teaching may be the byproduct of it. Such pleasing is superior to the
other pleasures because it teaches civic morality. So all good literature gives
pleasure, which is not divorced from moral lessons.
Conclusion
Thus we can say that these critics gave the logical argument
about what should be the tragedy and what should be the poetry. And through
those arguments we have also seen that how it can be applied in current times.
There are various forms and methods to express our thoughts and emotions.
Various ways are nowadays used to express the views on different things. We now
have the exact meaning of what is poetry and what is tragedy.
Works
Cited
Contributors, Wikipedia. Expressionism. 5 October 2019. Document. 9
October 2019.
NMEICT Project. Literary Criticism. 9 October 2019. Document. 9
October 2019.
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