Over the course of the semester, we have spent quite a bit of time discussing the role of the author. While I feel I have maybe overloaded the blog with posts concerning Longinus On the Sublime, his theories concerning the creation of the sublime are a nice complement to Boone's "Morality of Narration." The opportunity to compare the theory of two individuals who lived close to two thousand years apart was to enticing to pass up. It seems that both Longinus and Booth hold the author to a certain standard; that is, the each theorist has certain expectations of the author when writing a narrative.
For Longinus, of course, the author should be focused primarily on constructing and illustrating the sublime in his writing. As we have discussed in lecture as well as on the blog, the sources for sublimity involve the author and his technique and style of writing. For the purposes of relating Longinus to Booth, I want to focus explicitly on a few of the sources that have received little attention thus far by our class. Longinus asserts that in order to achieve sublimity, the author must use figures, "noble diction" (careful construction of words, phrases, and the use of metaphors) and "dignified and elevated word arrangement" (pg. 350). He notes the importance of these sources, claiming that "sublimity will be achieved if we consistently selected the most important of...inherent features and learn to organize them as a unity by combining them with another" (pg. 353). This is basically a really complex way to say that the author must make the effort to include and organize words and phrases in order to achieve sublimity.
But how does all this relate to Booth, who does not discuss sublimity at all, but instead focuses on the morality of narration? While Booth takes a little while to dispel common notes of morality in terms of the "right"/"wrong" and a works perceived social effect, he comes back to contend that the moral obligation of the writer is simply to "write well." Booth continues on morality, "writing well must include the successful ordering of your readers view of a fiction world...The 'well made phrase' in fiction must be much more than 'beautiful'; it must serve larger ends, and the artist has a moral obligation." (pg. 389). I dont think it would be a stretch to claim that Longinus and Booth would agree that the author has a moral purpose to organize his words and phrases to convey the sublime to the reader. It seems that the creation of the sublime for Longinus is similar to the act of "writing well" that Booth contends is the source of morality in a narrative. While neither theorist ignores the role of the reader, they both focus heavily on the obligation of the author to produce works that are meaningful and powerful.
Daniel-
ReplyDeleteI agree that Longinus and Boone wrote similarly regarding the obligation of an author to produce works that, like you say, are 'meaningful and powerful.'
I was struck with another similarity between their writings: Boone and Longinus both argue for analysis (and therefore criticism). Boone says, "Narration is an art, not a science, but this does not mean taht we are necessarily doomed to fail when we attempt to formulate principles about it. There are systematic elements to every art..." (p. 164) and Longinus says nature "... is not a random force and does not work altogether without method..." (p. 347).
I think both Boone and Longinus were advocates of analysis (and, it follows, criticism) in the interest of producing excellent works.
I admire your attention to detail in pointing out the two were so many years apart.