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978-1-107-10153-1 - The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant

Robert Doran
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THE THEORY OF THE SUBLIME FROM LONGINUS

TO KANT

In this book, Robert Doran offers the first in-depth treatment of the
major theories of the sublime, from the ancient Greek treatise On the
Sublime (attributed to “Longinus”), and its reception in early modern
literary theory, to the philosophical accounts of Burke and Kant.
Doran explains how and why the sublime became a key concept of
modern thought and shows how the various theories of sublimity are
united by a common structure – the paradoxical experience of being
at once overwhelmed and exalted – and a common concern: the
preservation of a notion of transcendence in the face of the secular-
ization of modern culture. Combining intellectual history with lit-
erary theory and philosophical analysis, his book provides a new,
searching, and multilayered account of a concept that continues to
stimulate thought about our responses to art, nature, and human
events.

robert doran is Associate Professor of French and Comparative

Literature at the University of Rochester. He is the author of The
Ethics of Theory: Philosophy, History, Literature (forthcoming) and the
editor of three books: Philosophy of History After Hayden White (2013);
Hayden White’s The Fiction of Narrative (2010); and René Girard’s
Mimesis and Theory (2008).

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Robert Doran
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Robert Doran
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THE THEORY OF THE SUBLIME

FROM LONGINUS TO KANT

ROBERT DORAN
University of Rochester

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Robert Doran
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Doran, Robert, 1968–
The theory of the sublime from Longinus to Kant / Robert Doran, University of Rochester.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-107-10153-1
1. Sublime, The. I. Title.
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Robert Doran
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For my father:
Francis Yates Doran (1918–2010)

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Robert Doran
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Contents

Acknowledgments page x
Key to abbreviations and translations xii

Introduction 1

part i: longinus’s theory of sublimity 25

1 Defining the Longinian sublime 27
1.1 In search of “Longinus” 29
1.2 Longinus and ancient rhetoric: sublimity (hypsos), discourse (logos),
and the question of style 32
1.3 The experience of sublimity (hypsos): ecstasy (ekstasis), astonishment
(ekplêxis), wonder (thaumasion), and the moment (kairos) 40
1.4 Creating the sublime: genius (nature) versus art (technê) 48
1.5 True and false sublimity 53

2 Longinus’s five sources of sublimity 58

2.1 The first source of sublimity: grandeur of conception (noêsis) 59
2.2 The second source of sublimity: vehement/inspired emotion (pathos) 72
2.3 The technical sources of sublimity 78

3 Longinus on sublimity in nature and culture 82

3.1 The grandeur of nature 83
3.2 Sublimity and cultural decline 88

part ii: sublimity and modernity 95

4 Boileau: the birth of a concept 97
4.1 Boileau and Longinus 98
4.2 Boileau and neoclassical poetics: le sublime, le merveilleux, and the
je ne sais quoi 102
4.3 Sublimity and the honnête homme 108
4.4 Sublimity beyond rhetoric: le sublime versus le style sublime 110

vii

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viii contents
4.5 The quarrel of fiat lux: Boileau contra Huet 115
4.6 Boileau and the heroic ideal: Corneille’s Qu’il mourût 120

5 Dennis: terror and religion 124

5.1 “Delightful horror” 125
5.2 Recasting the Longinian sublime: “Religious Ideas” and “Enthusiastik
Passion” 127
5.3 Terror and the imagination 133
5.4 Sublime anthropogenesis in Dennis and Vico 136

6 Burke: sublime individualism 141

6.1 The question of “aesthetics” and the legacy of Longinus 142
6.2 Burke’s empiricism: pleasure, pain, and delight 146
6.3 Burke’s aesthetic anthropology of the sublime: sympathy, mimesis,
and ambition 153
6.4 Burke’s sociopolitics of sublimity: the bourgeois hero 160
6.5 Terror, power, and religion 164

part iii: the sublimity of the mind: kant 171

7 The Kantian sublime in 1764: Observations on the Feeling of the

Beautiful and the Sublime 173
7.1 The origins of the Observations 174
7.2 Kant’s Observations and Burke’s Enquiry 178
7.3 Sublimity, morality, and literary representation 182

8 The sublime in Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason 185

8.1 The role of the sublime in the second Critique 186
8.2 Respect and the moral law: the structural analogy between sublimity
and morality 189
8.3 Sublime morality or moral sublimity? 195

9 The sublime in Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment 202

9.1 Reflective judgment and the purposiveness of nature 203
9.2 The sublime versus the beautiful: form (Form), feeling (Gefühl),
and purposiveness (Zweckmäßigkeit) 209

10 Judging nature as a magnitude: the Mathematically Sublime 221

10.1 The absolutely and the simply great 222
10.2 The appearance of infinity 227
10.3 Presenting the maximum 230
10.4 The monstrous and the colossal 237

11 Judging nature as a power: the Dynamically Sublime 240

11.1 Macht versus Kraft: toward an aesthetics of resistance 241

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Contents ix
11.2 Virtual heroism 248
11.3 The sublimity of war 252
11.4 The sublimity of God 255

12 Sublimity and culture in Kant 260

12.1 Culture, morality, and necessity 261
12.2 The aesthetically sublime: affects and mental states 266
12.3 The artificial sublime: fine art, aesthetic ideas, and indirect
presentation 275

Conclusion 286

Bibliography of works cited 290

Index 305

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Acknowledgments

This book would not have seen the light of day without the guidance,
encouragement, and insights of Hayden White and Jean Bessière.
Although it bears little resemblance to the doctoral thesis they supervised
many years ago, this book is nevertheless a testament to their scholarly
example and deep understanding of literary theory, philosophy, and intel-
lectual history. I greatly appreciate their unwavering support and friend-
ship over the years.
René Girard has been an important interlocutor for this project, as well
as a great teacher and friend. My approach to philosophy was shaped in
large part by Richard Rorty’s seminars at Stanford University and discus-
sions in his office. Jean-Pierre Dupuy’s courses on philosophy at Stanford
and his research group at the CREA, Ecole Polytechnique, were an inspira-
tion. I greatly benefited from Jacques Derrida’s seminars at the EHESS –
part of what would become the Burke chapter was given as an oral
presentation in his 1999–2000 seminar – as well as from a conversation
with him about the sublime during a ride from the San Jose airport. Annual
meetings in a Parisian café with Samuel Weber, whom I met as a partici-
pant in his Paris Program in Critical Theory, constantly challenged me to
rethink my concepts and methods. Conversations with Karl Heinz Bohrer
about “suddenness” helped me to understand the temporal dimension of
sublimity. Numerous exchanges with Marcel Hénaff have broadened my
knowledge of philosophy and anthropology.
Paul Crowther read the entire manuscript, offering copious comments
and suggestions that helped me to clarify my overall conception and
presentation. His scholarship on Kant, especially his pioneering The
Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art, has been a constant inspiration.
I am especially indebted to Stephen Halliwell, whose thorough reading of
the Longinus material led to vital improvements. Halliwell’s magisterial
The Aesthetics of Mimesis: Ancient Texts and Modern Problems was a model
for this project; for it showed how an idea originating in ancient thought

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Acknowledgments xi
could be brought into fruitful dialogue with modern conceptions and how
a diverse and contested concept like mimesis could be treated in a unified
way. Marsh McCall and David Glidden also provided stimulating com-
mentary on the Longinus material. I am very grateful to Allen Wood, who
read an early version of the Kant chapters with a sharp critical eye. Many
thanks to Pierre Keller, Samantha Matherne, Sandra Shapshay, and Ralf
Meerbote, all of whom offered valuable advice on aspects of the Kant
material. Larry F. Norman gave me crucial suggestions on the Boileau
chapter. David Quint’s comments on the Boileau and Dennis chapters
were as meticulous as they were enlightening. John Briggs generously
shared his thoughts on the chapters on Dennis and Burke.
I owe the idea for writing a book on the sublime to Massimo Lollini,
who, knowing my philosophical interests, urged me to take a seminar he
was teaching on “Vico and the Settecento.” Lollini’s wonderful book, Le
muse, le maschere e il sublime: G. B. Vico e la poesia nell’età della “Ragione
spiegata,” was an early inspiration.
I would like to thank the Office of the Provost at the University of
Rochester for a subvention that covered the permissions for the image that
appears on the cover. Many thanks to my colleagues at the University of
Rochester for their support, encouragement, and friendship.
Hilary Gaskin, my editor at Cambridge University Press, has been
wonderfully patient and supportive. I am grateful for her kind attention
and guidance, as well as for the invaluable insights and suggestions pro-
vided by the two anonymous readers of the manuscript. I must also thank
Beatrice Rehl, who showed initial interest in the project before she was
promoted to Director of Humanities Publishing at Cambridge University
Press.
Finally, I do not know how to express my gratitude to Sabine, the
mother of our twin boys Max and Adrian, who made heroic efforts to
keep the project on track amid the challenges of raising two very energetic
Jungs.
My father, Francis Yates Doran (1918–2010), passed away during the
writing of this book. Only when composing the eulogy for his funeral
service did I realize how much he inspired this project. No one better
understood the sublime in music, as when he entered an enraptured state
while listening to Luciano Pavarotti’s rendition of Puccini’s “Nessun
dorma” or Arthur Rubinstein’s RCA recording of Chopin’s Ballade in
g minor. It is to his memory that this book is dedicated.

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Key to abbreviations and translations

Except for works by Plato, Aristotle, and Longinus, citations from the texts
listed below are indicated parenthetically and by abbreviation. Citations
from Longinus’s On the Sublime (Peri hypsous) are indicated by chapter and
line number and are taken from the translation by D. A. Russell in Ancient
Literary Criticism: The Principal Texts in New Translations, ed. D. A. Russell
and M. Winterbottom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), 460–503.
Citations from Plato and Aristotle are indicated by Bekker Number.
Citations from Aristotle’s Poetics are from the translation by Stephen
Halliwell, in Aristotle Poetics, Longinus On the Sublime, Demetrius On
Style (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995, Loeb Classical
Library), 3–141. Citations from Aristotle’s Rhetoric are from the translation
by George A. Kennedy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). Citations of
Plato are from Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper (Indianapolis:
Hackett Publishing Company, 1997). All quotations from the Bible are from
the King James version.

APP Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798). In: Immanuel

Kant, Anthropology, History, Education. Ed. Gunter Zoller and
Robert B. Louden. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
CF The Conflict of the Faculties (1798). Trans. Mary Gregor and
Robert Anchor. In: Immanuel Kant, Religion and Natural
Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
CPaR Critique of Practical Reason (1788). Trans. Mary Gregor. In:
Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy. Ed. Mary J. Gregor.
Intro. Allen Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999.
CPuR Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787). Immanuel Kant, Critique of
Pure Reason. Ed. and trans. Paul Guyer and Allen Wood.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

xii

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Key to abbreviations and translations xiii

CPJ Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790). Immanuel Kant,
Critique of the Power of Judgment. Ed. Paul Guyer. Trans. Paul
Guyer and Eric Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2000.
CW The Critical Works of John Dennis. 2 vols. Ed. Edward Niles
Hooker. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1943.
E A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the
Sublime and Beautiful (1757/1759). Edmund Burke. Ed., intro.,
and notes J. T. Boulton. New York: Routledge, 1958/2008.
FI First Introduction. In: Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of
Judgment (1790). Ed. Paul Guyer. Trans. Paul Guyer and Eric
Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
G Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785). Ed. and trans.
Mary Gregor. In: Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy. Ed.
Mary J. Gregor. Intro. Allen Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999.
LA Lectures on Anthropology. Immanuel Kant, Lectures on
Anthropology. Ed. Robert B. Louden and Allen W. Wood.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
O Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (1764).
Intro. and trans. Paul Guyer. In: Immanuel Kant, Anthropology,
History, Education. Ed. Gunter Zoller and Robert B. Louden.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
NS The New Science of Giambattista Vico (1725/1744). Trans.
Thomas Goddard Bergin & Max Harold Fisch. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 1968. (References are to section num-
bers, rather than to page numbers.)
TS Traité du Sublime (1674). In: Longinus, Traité du sublime. Trans.
(1674) and Préface (1674–1701) Nicolas Boileau. Including Boileau,
Réflexions critiques (selections). Ed., notes, and intro. Francis
Goyet. Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1995.
WB Works of Monsieur Boileau. 2 vols. Ed. and trans. John Ozell and
Pierre Desmaizeaux. London, 1712.

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