Liteary Criticism by Sir Shakoor

Plato’s “Republic”, “Ion”, “Phaedrus”
Plato born in 427 BC wrote “Republic 1” in 375 BC. He lived in an age of political turmoil &
wars. He established an academy in Athens, as a school to train philosopher-rulers, or
guardians. He didn’t give any systematic theory like Aristotle. The only common thing that
can be gathered from his various discussions on poetry or art is “distrust of mimesis”
Plato’s Rejection of Poetry & Poets: (On four grounds)
1. Metaphysical/Intellectual/Philosophical grounds: (Plato’s theory of imitation”

Art is the imperfect imitation of imperfect imitation, falling short of the thing
imitated and twice removed/two steps/two generations removed from reality; a world
of shadows and falsehood.
World of
Ideas/Forms/Universals/ World of things or of
World of the artist. A copy of
Originals. World of timeless and shadows of reality. World of
copy, twice removed from
immutable forms in accessible to senses, of mutable objects.
reality.
senses. Accessible to Deceptive world
philosophical reasoning only
Allegory of the cave:
It shows his fertile imagination. It attracted the post-structuralists.
Example of the Bed:
Bed, the type: Beds (particular beds made by the carpenter.
Real Bed (Idea) →Carpenter’s Bed →Painted Bed
Example of Mirror: Appearances of things, as a reflection of sun in water
Emphasis on Utility & Practicality: Shoemaker is better than the representer of the shoe.
Three areas of expertise: User, Manufacturer, Representer. User knows the best.
Defense of Art/ Artist’s world by Aristotle, Sydney, Shelley and others.
2. Moral/Ethical grounds:
1
Questions: Why did he write the book? What is his relevance to subsequent criticism esp. 20th century? Why did
he write in dialogue format? His prose work is called poetry? What poetic qualities do we find in his work? How
is he different from Aristotle? He is a classicist, where lies his classicism?
Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

Three aspects of man’s personality.
 Cognition (Reason), Rational/Intellectual part. Best part represented by

philosophers in The Republic.
 Conation (Will Power). Better part, represented by the soldiers of The
Republic.
 Affection (feelings and sentiments) weak and worst part, represented by
Artists.
In ideal and sound personality reason should use will power to crush emotions and
analogously in ideal state philosophers should use soldiers to banish Artists. (Page 78,
Anthology)
3. Psychological grounds:
Identification/fellow feeling with the hero/characters destroys the self. It leads

towards split/divided personalities. It wakens personality of the audience, because they
identify with different colors in different plays.
Negative capability/Empathy is rejected.
4. Inductive grounds:(general conclusion from particular examples)
Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus & others tell lies; present gods acting like human;
attribute human qualities to gods; show gods as revengeful; jealous, scheming, & intriguing
against each other; they show great men weeping & mourning. So Homer and all others are
bad and should be banished from The Republic. (Page 57 & 58, Anthology)
 Poetic qualities- use allegories, analogies, metaphors & imagination

 Platonic Love- disciplined and cultured (Page 63)
 A feminist issue (Page 57)
 Dictatorship (Page 59)
 Classicist- reason, authority and discipline (Page 59)
 Didactic, Pragmatic and moralist (Art for life’s sake)
 Dialogue format –attracted the deconstructionists; it frustrates efforts to fix Plato’s thoughts because
nothing can be directly attributed to Plato as he doesn’t speak in himself. Characters in his dialogues
include Socrates, Ion, and his brothers Glaucon&Adeimantus
 His love for Poetry and Homer (Page 80)
 Ion: Poetry is divine madness, not art (Page 41) - Romantics vs. Classicists/Inspiration vs. Art. (Not only
poetry is divinely inspired madness, so is criticism. Criticism is not rational analysis as it is for Arnold
&Cleanth Brooks. But it is strange and contradictory that in Republic poets are not divinely inspired but
liars.
 Phardeus: evils of writing (Leavisite’s distrust of theory and deconstructionist’s plurality of meanings.

Aristotle’s Poetics
1. Answers to Plato’s Charges
i. Metaphysical grounds: Theory of Form and Matter: what might be, not what
is, what has been, or what should be; Poetic Truth; unrealized ideal
ii. Moral grounds: Poetry doesn’t nourish emotions but brings about Catharsis;
Freud anticipated;
iii. Psychological grounds: identification makes us leave our selfishness; Buddha’s
doctrine of “No Self” & The Story of a woman whose son died.
iv. Inductive grounds: fallacy in Plato’s statement; Poet is not a teacher even.
2. General Philosophy
i. Seeds of all institutions lie in human nature: Man is religious, social,
Political and imitative animal.
ii. All the institutions are organic whole: Birth, growth, maturity & death/
Infancy (hymns), youth (epic), maturity (tragedy), death (imitation).
iii. Definitions per genus per differentia: genre or genus specific & species
specific traits.
3. Origins & Growth of Greek Drama

i. Infancy: Dance & Choral Songs at the festival of Dionysius; Thespis introduced
on actor
ii. Youth: Aeschylus introduced 2nd actor; made dramatic part prominent
iii. Maturity: Sophocles introduced 3rd actor & well-knit plot
iv. Decline: After Euripides drama became imitative
4. Function of Art:
i. Aristophorus-moral counsel. Plato also condemned poets
on moral grounds Art for life’s sake
ii. Horace (Romantic Critic)- art instructs and delights
iii. Aristotle- Pleasure Art for Art sake

5. Classification of Art
ART (Art is imitation)
i. Function of imitation
Fine Arts Useful Arts
(Imitation of man in (Imitation of Nature
action for pleasure) to serve man)
(Methods of Nature)
ii. Means or Medium of imitation
Architecture HandicraftSurgery Cooking
Painting Dance Music Poetry

(Colours) (rhythm) (Rhythm (Words, rhythm
& Melody) & Melody)
iii. Object of imitation
SeriousPoetry Comic Poetry

(Serious Action) (Comic Action)
iv. Manner of imitation
Tragedy Epic Comedy Mock

Epic
(Dramatic) (Narrative) (Dramatic)
(Narrative)

Aristotle’s Tragedy
1. Definition:
A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious, complete in itself, having a

magnitude, in a language pleasurable accessories brought out separately in separate parts of
drama, in a dramatic, not in a narrative form, with incidents arousing pity & fear, wherewith
to accomplish the Catharsis of these emotions.
Selfish & Basic feeling, but in tragedy it is selfless and impersonal.
2. Catharsis:
i. Moral interpretation: Purges emotions; humbles pride (Middle ages)
ii. Psychological Interpretation: balances emotions; too much/less emotions lead to
psychological morbidity
iii. Medical interpretation 1: Purgatives; removes poisonous emotions which exp of life
engenders
iv. Medical interpretation 2: Vaccines; prepares & trains us to face misery
v. Freudian: Socially acceptable outlet.
Thus catharsis gives us satisfaction and also understanding of the emotions and gives
pleasure.
3. Six Parts/Elements of Tragedy(in order of the importance)

i. Plot: (object of imitation) soul, nucleus; complete, magnitude, organic whole,
probability, cause and effect, episodic, simple, complex.
The most germinal idea, echoes can be found in 18 th

century
theoryOf Vermisilitude, Coleridge’s willing suspension of
disbelief, and formalists’ idea of defamilarization, &
Brecht’s alienation effect
Discovery & Reversal
(Recognition) (Peripeteia)
(Anagnorisis)
By Birthmark (Odyssey) less artistic

By revising Memory (Odyssey) more artistic
By argument (Iphegenia-euripedes) more artistic
As intergral parts (Oedipus Rex) more artistic

ii. Character (Moral aspect of a man) class, gender, nationality, profession
(Object of imitation)
Good, appropriate, consistent, life like

Tragic hero: not perfectly bad or good but having hamartia
i. Man consciously plans and does

(Euripides Media) not good formula
ii. Man consciously plans and doesn’t
(worst formula)
iii. Unconsciously does something (Oedipus
Rex) 2nd best
iv. About to do but do unknowingly but
discovery takes place (Euripides
Iphigenia) Best
iii. Thought(Object of imitation)
(Intellectual aspect)
iv. Diction (Means of imitation)
language with pleasureable accessories
v. Melody: (Means of Imitaion)
(Pleasureable accessories)
vi. Spectacle (Manner of imitation)
(dialogues and all stage devices)
 Realistic (philosphically not idealist), systematic approach ( as in classification),

 Inductive approach
 Analytical approach (Methodiologically) (categorization & logical differentiation)
 His idea of formal unity attracted Neoclassisits; idea of organic plot & formal unity & internal
properties influenced Coleridge, Formalists, Arnold, Eliot, Leavis, new critics, structuralists,
archetypal critics & all text oriented approaches
 In rhetoric; the affective and political dimensions have influenced reader amd context
oriented approaches
 In treating poetry as a craft he differes from Plato who discusses poetry in term of inspiration
 His systematic categorization & comparisons influenced recent genre thoery
 Poetry for him is a source of universal knowledge of human behavior; it deals with what
might be. It influenced Arnold, Eliot, Leavis, & New critics who also view literature as a
vessel containing wisdom of ages; the best that has ever been known & thought
 Poetics with its concenterated focus on form influenced Text oriented approaches whereas
rhetoric with its focus on political dimensions & consideration for the audience influenced
Reader and context oriented approaches.
Sir Philip Sidney

“An Apology for Poetry” or “The Defence of Poetry”
Renaissance’s “Poetics”, “Aristotalisim in England”, “Echoes of Aristotle’s Poetics
1. Reason for writing this essay/Treatise

Renaissance age; Puritans suspicion; charges and defences; Replies & counter
replies. Stephen Gosson’s “The School of Abuse.” Gosson charges included.
i. Poets are caterpillers/parasites of the common wealth.
ii. Music is debelitating and it undermine vritue.
iii. Drama promotes debuachery.
Part
iv. Plato has banished poets from “The Republic”

1st
v. Drama has pagan origin.

vi. Drama makes males effiminate as they perform female roles.
vii. Drama weakens moral attitude; Tragedy shows bloodshed & comedy foolish
laughters and vulgar love affairs.
2. Sidney’s Defence
A. Conventional Arguments to establish value (dignity) of poetry
i. Universality of poetry:
It appeals all and always. Echoes can be found in Jonson
ii. Antiquity of poetry:
It has always been a source of learning and civilization in all nations. It has
been esteemed by all & always (veiled humansit position). Poets are fathers of
learning. It preceded other branches of learning.
iii. Universal variation of Poets and Poetry:
Roman called poet “vates” i.e. “ a seer or prophet; Greeks word ‘Poetes’
meant maker or creator.
B. More convincing Arguments to show value (dignity) of poetry:
Exalted conception of the Nature & function of poetry.
Nature and Function/Usefulness of poetry

i. Definition:(Nature)
Poetry therefore is an art of imitation… a representing, counter feiting or
figuring forth… a speaking picture—with this end, to teach and delight.
Verse is an ornament of poetry. “It is not rhyming or versing that makes a
poet, no more than a long gown makes and advocate… but it is that feigning
images of virtues and vices. One may be poet without versing as Plato was,
and a versifier without poetry. Verse is only a decoration, an aid to memory.
Poetry does not imitate or represent or express or discuss things which
already exist: he invents new things. Invention is the distinguishing character
of the poet. Imagination is involved in invention and creation. His
imagination is different from others.
Poet creates or invents a better world than the real, where “Lovers are truer,
friends more constant, warriors more valiant, where poetic justice prevails.
“Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have
done.”…”Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden.”
Thus poet creates ideal world better than nature/imperfect real world. Art is
the imitation, not of ideas (Shelley) or things of the world (Plato) or
unrealized ideal (Aristotle) i.e. what might be, but an imitation of what
should be; an imitaiton of an ideal world, not existed before, but created by
the poet himself, the world which is more moral, ordered, impressive than
the real world. The readers are convinced to follow that ideal world for moral

uplift. The poet makes his world attractive & impressive with order,
stability& poetic justice so that the readers may be convinced, tempted &
allured to follow this better moral world.
So Sidney transfers the act of imitation from poets to the reader. Poet creates
and reader imitates.
Poetry is more invention than verse. The story may be untrue but untruths
may be valuable as means of communcating wisdom. Plato also used
invented situations. Poetry is the record of imaginary events described in
lively style. So it is Fiction plus liveliness. Liveliness attracts & fiction teaches.
Meter does not make poetry; Lively invention is crucial. This non-poetic
objective gives the poetry its ultimate value.
ii. Function of Poetry

To teach delightfully; delightful instruction; Poetry moves to virtuous actions.
Poet creates an ideal world to be imitated by the reader for his more uplift.
He values poetry not for its delight, but for moral effect & practical utility.
Delightful aspects are justified as they tempt the readers to virtuous actions.
iii. Superiority of poetry over Philosophy & History
Poetry teaches by percepts & history by examples. Poetry combines the both.
It moves men to virtue which philosophy& history cannot. Poet does not
imitate what is (Science) what has been (history) but what should be.
Philosopher is to abstract to be persuasive. Sidney has changed Aristotle’s
probable“Should be/ ought to be”/might be” to a moral “should be.”
iv. Divison of Poetry: Usefullness of various kinds of poetry
A. Religious Poetry (Praise of god)
B. Philosophical Poetry (imparts knowledge)
C. True Poetry
i. Heroic (inspires us)
ii. Lyric (promotes virtues by praising men & gods)
iii. Tragic (teaches humility showing uncertanity of life)
It makes king fear to be tyrant.
iv. Comic (makes us think of our foolies)
Comedy shows fithiness of evil.
v. Satire (makes us think of our foolies)
vi. Pastoral (arouses sympathy for simple life
vii. Elagiac (arouses sympathy for the suffering humanity.
Sidney’s reply to some general

Charges against poetry
Part
2nd
Charges Replies
Poetry is useless & waste of time. It leads to vrtuous actions.
It is mother of lies. The poet does not state, describe or
affirm. He suggests and perscribes
(what should be) no chance of lie.
It has corrupting influence. It The fault lies not with poetry but,
encourages sexual tone & makes with the abuse of poetry.
man effiminate.
It makes us indulge in fancy & day It it the fault of all learnings. Poetry

dreaming and prevents us from moves men to virtuous actions.
action.
Plato banished poets. Plato was not against poetry, but
the abuse of poetry.
C. Remarks on contemporary poetry and Drama:
He condemns violation of unities &mixture of tragic & comic in contemporary
drama.
Objection to tragi-comedy “There should be no mingling of

kings and clowns ; of horn pies and funerals (Johnson’s
Part
3rd
replies)
He makes a distinction between laughter (Farcial comedy)& delight (Intellectual

comedy).
He condemns insincerity of love poetry.
He condemns pedantic use of high flown diction, which baffles the readers
instead of persuading them.------------------------- Is it not anti-classicist?
D. Remarks on Diction Style &Versification

Meter, verse form, diction, style etc. are the luxuries to attract the attention of the
reader & entice him to follow the ideal world imitated or created by the poet.He
also comments on the English vernacular. He depends the use of The vernacular
languages in place of Latin (nationalism-Englishness). Turn to the vernacular
Renaissance influence
reflected the growing national consciousnessof the time and an increasing

preoccupationwith distinct nation literary traditions (echoes in FR Learies’ “The
great Tradition”)
His concept of imagination? Where lies his romanticism? Where lies his
natioanlism? Where does he show the influence of Aristotle? Where does he
differ from Aristotle? How his idea of imitaion differs?What is more important
for him, delight or instruction? Style or content?
John Dryden
“An essay of Dramatic Poesy”
 “An Essay of Dramatic Poesy” is in the form of dialogue (significance) with four
His Nationalism is evident.
speakers who represent four different points of view. The essay;
i. Compares modern dramatists with the ancients

ii. Compares French dramatists with the English
iii. Discusses the ancient rules & the modern practice
iv. Discusses the relevance of rhyme verse in place of blank verse in
moderns ?

 He prefers rhyme verse in place of blank verse. He thinks modern to be superior to
the ancients. He also maintains superiority of the English over the French. He also
defends modern practice & the violation of ancient rules. He defends tragi-comedy
(Sidney didn’t). He defends sub-plots; he defends violation of unities. Tragi-comedy
is purely an English form which was not known to ancients & the French. Here he
resembles Dr. Johnson, whose views on tragi-comedy and violation of unities are the
echoes of Dryden’s views. John says, “He that imagines this much, may imagine
more.” So violation of unities doesn’t disturb probability and dramatic illusions &
the delight proceeds from our consciousness of Fiction, because real murders do not
give us pleasure.
 His nationalism is evident from the essay. Here his stated purpose is to “vindicate
the honour of our English writers from the censure of those who unjustly prefer the
French before them.”
 He “loves Shakespeare”. He “is the man who, of all modern & perhaps ancient poets,
had the largest and most comprehensive soul… He was naturally learned.” Here he
ceases to be a neo-classicist & looks like a romantic.
 He respects authority and precedent without being weighed down by them. “If the
plays of the ancients are more correctly plotted, ours are more beautifully written…
it is not enough that Aristotle has said so; for Aristotle drew his models of Tragedy
from Sophocles & Euripides, and if he had seen ours, he might have changed his
mind.” Here he refuses to pay servile homage to Aristotle like other neo-classicists.
He is a liberal classicist & defends claims of genius to write according to its own
convictions without regard for the rules. He recognizes that the genius and
temperament differs from age to age, so the rules cannot be eternal. Thus, as a critic,
he breaks through the narrow bounds of neo-classicism giving more importance to
the spirit than the outer form.
 On the whole his criticism is descriptive (non perspective) comperative, historical
&Psychological;
His definition of drama/poetry/imaginative literature (Nature of art/poetry) (Concept

of Imitation)
He defines drama as;
which one is more important? Why not imitation?
“A Just and Livelyimage of human nature, representing its passions & humors,
Psychological realism
Mental characteristics disposition
and changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of
where does delight come from? Is it primary function or Secondary?

what kind of instruction? (moral or
psychological)
mankind.”
 For Plato. Poet’s world was a second hand imitation of reality and therefore of no
value. For Aristotle poet’s world is an unrealized ideal world. For Sidney, poet
created a lot morally better than the real world for moral edification of the reader.
None of these critics considers the real world worthy and valuable enough to be
imitated. For Plato it is unreal; for Aristotle it is imperfect, for Sidney it is brazen. But
Dryden accepts it & wants a just & lively image of it.
 Image, Just, Lively, human nature: The word emphasizes appearance. Conciously
used to avoid the world imitation,which carries with negative meanings which Plato
attributed to it, i.e. imitation isa servile copy. Image can become truth if it is just. Just
account of human naturecan be given by a psychologist, but it would be neither
lively, nor an image.Similarly an image could be lively without being just, while a
just image of human nature could be dull rather than lively. So all four elements are
necessary (Just, lively, image, human nature).
 So for Dryden Art is not stavish imitation of what is (Plato). It is just, but lively also
i.e. Just representation of reality but also slightly idealised. So art does not reproduce
reality but idealises it also. It is idealised representation of life.
 For him imitation involves justness and liveliness. So he is different from Plato,
Aristotle, Sidney etc.
 But ‘Just’ and ‘lively’ are contradictory words. Justness disturbs liveliness and
liveliness mars justness of the image. But poet describe the Just and makes it more
beautiful.
 Liveliness is the work of imagination. Thus poet is a creator or maker., not stavish
imitation. He doesn’t give a mere reproduction of reality., but a beautiful version of
reality. Dryden says: “The poet does not leave things as he finds Them, but handles
Them, treats Them, heightens Their quality and creates something that is beautiful
and his own.” Poet is like a watch-maker; he uses materials not his own, but his
craftsmanship givesvalue to the watch. Imagination makes the image lively but too
much imagination can disturb Justness. So it must be curbed & controlled by
judgement. Thus imagination enables a poet to give a lively image of the human
nature, while his Judgement keeps This image ‘Just’.
Function of the Art/Poetry
 Delight & instruction:

Delight is primary function of poetry (difference from other Neo-classicists & Sidney
for whom instruction is primary function of poetry). Liveliness is more important
than Justness. Justness and instruction is there to add to delight. Delight comes from
the lonliness & also justness. Just image gives us instruction, not moral, but
psychological. It gives us wisdom, awareness, understanding, insight into/of human
nature/mind & psychology.
 Thus the function of poetry would be to inform the reader, in a lively and agreeable
way, of what human nature is like? Literature would give a kind of psychological
realism. It would be a form of knowledge and it would bear the same relation to
psychology as in Sidney it does to the ethics. That is while for Sidney the poet makes
vivid & impressive, by his imaginary examples, the idea of moral philosopher, so for

the Dryden the poet makes vivid & impressive, by his imaginary examples, the
knowledge of the psychologist.
 The word ‘Instruction’ is ambiguous. It carries conventional moral meanings with it.
For Dryden it is not moral. His definition shows that literature is a form of
knowledge not a technique of persuasion. So instruction for him means Recongnition
(what we already know) or new knowledge (what we don’t know) of human nature.
 John Keats wrote in one of his letters; “Poetry should strike the reader as a wording
of his own highest thoughts, that appear almost a rememberence.” So it is not simple
recognition. The phrase “almost a remembrance” is suggestive indicating a middle
ground between recognition& new knowledge & it is on that middle ground that
imaginative literature operates. So for Dryden Instructions means both recognition &
new knowledge because only recognition may not give us pleasure.
 For Dryden Liveliness seems to be more important because it gives delight, which is
the primary function of poetry. Justness also gives delight. Dryden, it seems, wants
art to give maximum/two fold/double delight.

Dr. Samuel Johnson
“Preface to Shakespeare”
 Defence of Shakespeare against the charges put against him by the Neo-classicists.
 Neo-classicists criticized Shakespeare for violationg the rules of the classics.
 Mixture of comic and tragic
 Violation of Unities
 Introduction to sub-plot
 Too much play of imagination
 Supernaturalism
 Crude Language & Vulgur Jokes
 Undemocratic attitude- hatred of the mobo
 Dr. Johnson& Dryden defended Shakespeare against theses charges. They defended his
violation of classical rules. But they did not realize or idolized him as romantics did. They
were judicial critics & were not blind to the faults of Shakespeare. So they are liberal neo-
classicists.
 Johnson Defence of Shakespeare

According to Johnson, perhaps Shakespeare was not aware of the rules of the classics. He
followed nature and his genius that’s why he is great.
Objections/charges of the Neo- Johnson’s Defense

classicists
i. His Romans are not like Roman,  Johnsohn Asks
but like English. His kings are not Are Kings Men Or Not?
like kings, but like common Are Romans Human Beings Or
people. His kings are not kingly. Not?
So Shakespeare saw his kings
and Romans as human beings &
his emphasis is on common
human traits, not on accidental
aspects of being a king or a
Roman.
ii. He violated Aristotle’s rules and  Aristotle rules are not eternal.
mingled tragic & comic which There are many roads to
cancels the effect of each other. greatness—and Shakespeare
followed a different road, not
the one suggested by Aristotle.
 Shakespeare gives a faithful
picture of human life—life is a
mixture of Tragedy & Comedy.
 Rules are not authority—Nature
is higher authority &
Shakespeare followed nature
and gave faithful picture of
nature.
 By combining comic & tragic, he

gives both types of pleasure. He
gives delightful instructions. He
instructs as nature does.
 Tragical effect is not cancelled
by the comic; it is rather
heightened by contrast (as black
appears more black in contrast
with white).
 Comic provides comic relief.
The Function of Art/Drama
 Delightful instruction—we are instructed by The Characters, Their Tragic flaws,

Their Crimes and Their Sufferings.
 Instruction, like Dryden, means wisdom, knowledge & understanding of life, of man,
of man’s nature & of man’s position in the universe/in the scheme of things.
 So He and Dryden differ from Sidney. For them instrucion is Psychological, for
Sidney it is moral.
Johnson’s Defense of Shakespeare

 He proves Shakespeare’s greatness. He judges him from two standards or tests.
Standard/Test of Time Standard/Test of Nature

 Also used by Longinus By nature he means two things
“Sublime moves all and always”
 Shakespeare passes this test.  Realism or True and Universality

 He moves all and always. fatithful picture of
 His works survive. human life
 His works resist the  He holds mirror to  Man personality
destructive influence of nature and man and has three types of
time. his emotions. traits.
 Time destroys all but a  Poet of Nature. i. Individual Traits
genius. Depicts man as he vary person to
 His works defy time and is; not as he should person. (eccentric)
are never out-dated. be.
 He remains fresh & new.  True to human ii. Traits of Time &
 He remains moving & nature. Place:
inspiring in all ages &  Life-like characters vary from time to
nations. not black and white time, age to age
i.e. perfect villians and place to place
and heroes. & nation to nation
 All human passions (customs, beliefs
are depicted. etc.)
 Supernatural but iii. Universal/
basic human

makes it probable traits/ common
on the authority of humanity
the belief of the *. remains same in
people & the all ages & nations.
auhority of religion; It does not change.
& by giving it a *. Shakespeare
psychological depictsthis general
treatment i.e. if such humanity. So he is
a thing happens, the universal.
result/reaction *. He depicts
would be the same general/ basic
as we see in Hamlet, human passions/
Macbeth and primitive or
Brutus. elemental or
fundamental
human passions
such as love,
ambition, jealousy.
so his character &
themes are
timeless. Macbeth
& Hamlet lived in
all ages and all
places.
Division of Shakespeare’s plays:
 His plays are neither pure tragedies, nor pure comedies but tragi-comedies. So
division of his plays into tragedies, comedies & histories is arbitrary.
 His genius was for comedy. Comedies were instinct &spontaneous while tragedies
were labour and effort. Comedies were natural gift & Tragedies art.
Shakespeare’s ignorance of Unities, Criticized by Neo-

classicists, but defended by Dr. Johnson.
 Theory of Verisimilitute:
The audience is to be made fool so that they may forget themselves & start believing
violation of unities disturbs their belief. They protest it to be unreal. They should not
realize that it is all fiction because in that case they won’t be emotionally involved.
The play should produce a complete dramatic illusion. Violation of unities strains
our belief and shatters our dramatic illusion.
 To Johnson inly unity of action is important. Shakespeare observes it except in
historical plays.
 To him theory of Verisimilitute is false. People know that acting is acting. They are
always in their senses, even then they are emotionally involved because
i. Play represents life. It does not depict reality but brings it to our mind.
ii. The story of a character us that of human being.

iii. Tragedy in real life doesn’t give pleasure, but in theatre it does. Even ugly &
tragic things; because tragedy enlarges our understanding of life so our
conciousness that acting is acting gives pleasure.
 The delight proceeds from our conciousness of fiction. If we believe
that murders & treasons depicted in tragedy are real, they would
please us no more.
 When a spectator imagines the stage to be Alexandria and the actors
‘Antony & Cleopatra’, he can surely imagine much more.
iv. In reading a play we are moved as much as in seeing. In reading there can be
no illusion that what is enacted is real.
So we are always concious of the fact that acting is acting. So theory of V is
false. Unities are noit needed because
 If audience can believe this much, they can believe more/ that also.
 Greeks observed unities because most of the things were told through
dialogues; and not through action.
 Imitation produces pain/ pleasure, not because they are real/or
mistaken for reality, but because they bring reality to mind.
The Demerits of Shakespeare
1. He is more interested to please than to instruct. He sacrifices virtue to

convention. He doesn’t give moral lesson because there is no poetic justice.
(contradiction)—He is a poet of Nature, true to life.
2. Plots are loose—cavelessness—improbable endings
3. Anachronism—mixing things, events and ideas of one age with another. Wrong
details about history. (excused—poet gives ideal truth not factual or historical.
4. Crude Jokes (audience liked it)
5. No balance between thought (Matter) and expression (Manner)
says common things in high-rounding words
verbal bombast (No balance between matter and manner)
& mental bombast (No balance between emotion and situation)
6. His narrative portions are weak, long, useless and boring.
7. Speeches are cold & artificial (those of Brutus and Antony are not).
8. Lack of Objective co-relative (T.S. Eliot)
Escape from personality and emotion. Symbolic/ indirect way of expressing emotions.
Lives of Poet
Johnson’s Theory of Poetry (Nature and Function)
“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth by calling imagination to

the help of reason.”
Nature
“The essence of poetry is invention.” Thus poet becomes a creator by

virtue of his inventive & imaginative powers.
Function

“It must give pleasure, but it must also have truth”. It must serve the
purpose of life.
So we had exalted conception of calling of a poet. He wedded poetry to life.

So he criticized escapist poetry. (Keats)
Mathew Arnold criticism of life
Function of drama/art delightful instruction
Knowledge, understanding, wisdom, about life, man, man’s nature & position.
(Like Dryden)
Made by: Sir Abdul Shakoor

Department of English
Hazara University Mansehra
William Wordsworth
“Preface to Lyrical Ballads”

Theory of Poetry:
 What is a poet?
 What is poetry?
 What is Poetic Truth?
 What is the function of poetry?
 What is the suitable language of poetry and suitable subjects of poetry?
A. What is a poet?
 Poet is a man speaking to man; but some of his faulties are higher in degree
than other men. He differs from other men not in nature & qulaity or faulty
but in degree or quantity of his gifts/faulties.
 The poet has higher/stronger/greater/finer sensibilty/ sympathy (empathy
or negative capability) observation, reflection, imagination, power of
communication & capacity for strong emotional enthusiasm. This power
make him see reality behind the surface.
 The poet discovers due to his stronger powers that the soul/laws/principles
which govern the universe or nature. This realization & discovery fills him
with pleasure and ecstasy which he communicates to the readers. So poetry is
expression of emotions of pleasure & ecstasy “Then my heart with pleasure
fills and dances with the daffodils”. The same spirit runs through man and
nature (Pantheism). This discovery fills the poet with pleasure & enthusiasm.
B. What is Poetry or Process of Poetic Creation
 Four Stages
i. Observation (experience) Instant feelings
ii. Recollection (exp relived)
iii. Contemplation (modified feelings) please & ecstasy
iv. Composition/expression
 Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions recollected in
tranquility.
 Poetry is not the feelings of the moment. Feelings/passions are
modified/tempered by thought before expression. So poetry is expression of
emotions modified by thought. The feelings modified after the recollection of
experience are related to many past thoughts and feelings. Thoughts born out
of previous feelings modify new feelings. New feelings are coloured and
directed by a system of thought that has developed over the years out of
different feelings and experiences. So feelings expressed in poetry are not the
fresh feelings but refined feelings recollected in tranquility & moulded by a
complex thought system/process.
 The modified feelings are refiner than the original. They emerge as images
charged with the emotions (poetic emotion). This poetic emotion (refined
feelings) discover rality/essence of things, secret patterns & relationships of
things which lie beneaththe surface. The poet discovers
thisgeneral/basic/secret/universal/essential/fundamental
truth/reality/pattern.This discovery fills him with pleasure & he conveys the
same to the readers.
 Hence poetry is not an intellectual process. It takes birth in heart, not in mind.
Creative process is natural; it does not come from Art.

C. What is poetic truth?
 Poetic truth is ideal/general/universal & operative truth, not local, factual or

individual truth. It is operative as it directly operates on the heart. It does not
require any external evidence, verification, authentication or testimony. It is
carried alive into the heart by passion. The heart recognises it as true. It has
its own validity. The mind immediately recognizes it as true because such is
the psychological structure of mind which corresponds to the structure of the
universe. Poetry conveys secret laws or patterns of reality in the universe,
which are like those in the mind of man. So mind accepts this secret reality
without external evidence.
 Science deals with particulars, Philosophy with universals, poetry with
universals through particulars. So it combines science, history & philosophy.
It is the most philosophical of all writings. The appeal of science is merely to
the intellect. Poetry complements science by adding feelings to its truths. It is
the breath and spirit of all knowledge. It gives the dead face of science a
living expression. Without this knowledge, reality will be like the face of a
dead man. With it the face of the dead man glows. Science deals with facts,
poetry with spirit/soul/essence of facts.
D. What is the function of Poetry?
*. He gives moral dignity to the word “pleasure”.

*. His view of pleasure is different from that of Aristotle and Sidney. He is more close
to Dryden and Johnson.
*. He was deeper than Dryden & Dr. Johnson into the reason why general
representaion of human nature please us. Here it reaches reality.
 Primary function is to give pleasure (noble, refined and exalted pleasure); it

also gives consolation; enlightment and awareness; It also gives knowledge
and understanding; it teaches sympahty and moves to goodness.
 Poetry is not imitaiton but communication and the poet communicates his
own pleasure. Poetic pleasure is a refiend pleasure which results from
increased knowledge, understanding, recognition & discovery of
reality/basic patterns & laws in man’s mind & the universe.
 It has morally purifying influence. It teaches sympathy, universal love, etc.
because it shows that we are all parts of a universal pattern. But poet is not
conciousof moral function.It is just an effect of poetry. Poet just gives
pleasure, but what he creates has a morally elevating and purifying influence.
It serves the purposes of life. It enables us; it arouses the sensual from their
sleep of death. It consoles the afflicted and makes the happy happier. It
sustains us from the pretty and selfish emotions and elevates us to greater
love and sympathy because it makes is realize the oneness of all. (mysticism)
E. Suitable language of Poetry
 Poetic diction is artificial; it is unfeeling language; it has broken the vital

relationship between vision and the expression.
 Language of the common people is suitable medium for poetic expression;
because it is the language of the heart, genuine language; language of

elementary passion free from hypocrisy and affectation. Real and natural
language.
“To separate poetry from ordinary speech is to separate it from human life.”
 There is no difference
i. Between spoken language and poetic language
ii. Between language of poetry and that of prose.
 Meter is not essential but it is a source of added pleasure (pleasure
superadded). It is justified and desirable. It has a restraining and tempering
effect on the flow of emotions.
F. Themes/Subject of Poetry
 Incidents/situations from common life or rustic life, related in a selection of

language really used by men, with a coloring of imaginations, whereby
ordinary things would be presented in unusual aspect.
G. Why Rustic Life & language of the Rustics
 Behavior of the rustics is natural & instinctive; their actions generate from
essential passions. They don’t show hypocrisy & affectation. They hourly
communicate with the beautified objects of nature. They express feelings in
simple, unelaborated language. They speak of their genuine passions in the
life and language of villagers essential passions of the heart exist in a state of
simplicity and can be explored easily. They are not hidden conventions and
artificiality as in critics.

Notes:
 He was the first to describe the psychology of creative process. Echoes can be found in
modern criticism.
 His emphasis is on liberty, novelty, spontaneity & inspiration is contrasted with classical
emphasis or authority, tradition and restraint.
 Unlike Aristotle. He attahces more mroal and deeper value to emotions. For him, plot, formal
finish& perfection is not important (as it is for Aristotle). He stresses on feelings and
spontaneity. For him emotions even lead to reality.
 To him imagination is creative, active sahping, visualising and universalizing power. He calls
imagination “Reason in her most exalted form/mood”. He did make clear distinction
between fancy and imagiantion.
 Democratic attitude—life of common people; language of common people. Ideals of French
Revolution are reflected in the preface. Rejection of rules & authority is the rejection of
dictatorship. The preface also shows his love of liberty and democracy.
 For him passions are not debasing but a means of knowledge and love.
 What were the defects in the Neo-classicists he revolted against? Why themes and languag of
Rustics? French Revolution; influence on Romantics?

Samuel TaylorColeridge
“Biographia Literaria”
A. Wordsworth as a Critic: Contradictions in WW’s arguments
i. WW says that rustics show genuine/essential human passions. Coleridge says that
they are same in villagers and city people.
ii. WW generalizes what is true of his own village, all villages do not enjoy
‘independence’ & ‘education’ for flourishing of human passions. He generalizes what
is true of his own village.
iii. Selection (Purged of its coarsmn) of the langugae of rustics is not a language of the
rustics.
iv. Village language changes from place to place and age to age & how it can be
universal.
v. Poetic diction is not wrong. Its misuse is wrong (if Moderns have grand vision?,
which language they should use grand?, As classics were justified then village
language cannot be regarded as suitable.
vi. For Coleridge, meter is essential and poetic language is different from prose
language because order and aim is different.
B. Definitions of Poem & Poetry/ History of Poetry (Nature and Function)

 Poem Vs Prose
In Prose immediate end is truth, though ultimate end may be pleasure while in poem
immediate end is pleasure, though ultimate end may be truth. A novel also gives
pleasure, but here it is given by the whole while in poem is an organic whole meter is
essential; it excites our attention to various parts of the poem. The movement of a
poem is just like a snake. In a poem meter has reason for its presence. It arises out of
the content. It is not superadded.
 Poem and Poetry
Poetry is a wider category. It is created when secondary imagination is employed.
Every poem is not poetry. Poetry is a creative activity which can be engaged in by
painters, philosophers or scientists etc. a long poem may not be all poetry. Poetry is
not imitation. It is an activity of imagination. Expression of the pleasure poet gets
when his imagination discovers reality or essence. Functions of poetry is to give
pleasure by reconciliation of opposites & discovery of essence.
 Fancy & Imagination
Fancy and imagination differ in kind. Fancy is not creative. It just combines sense
perceptions like mecahnical mixture. It deals with fixities & definites & it works
according to law of association. Similes and Metaphors are products of fancy. It is a
kind of memory.
Primary imagination & secondary imagination differ in degree. Primary imagination
is involuntary, universal, possessed by all; It puts some order in some perceptions.
Secondary imagination is active, concious in its working; It reshapes & remoulds
sense perceptions. It is a shapping power, modifying power: it is possessed by artists
only. It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates in order to create. It harmonises & reconciles
opposites so it is synthetic power. In synthesis intellect & emotions, internal and the
external; subject & the object; the physical and the spiritual. It works like Chemical
Reaction.

 Imagination is esemplatic power i.e. re-shaping & modifying power
 It fuses various faculties of the soul-intellect, emotions, will and percpetion-and also
achieves reconciliation of the opposites.
 It is holistic power i.e. a power which maker wholes while fancy is associative and
aggregating power.
 Psychological explanation of creative process.
 He was influenced by German Philospohers.
 Beauty is nothing objective. It is imparted to the external world by the observer. So
art is not imitaion but recreation. The soul of the artist fuses with external reality and
transforms and recreates it.
 Willing suspension of disbelief-comparison with Johnson’s view.
 I A Richards called coleridge The fore-runner of the modern Science of Semantics.
 His idea of organic unity & of reconciliation of opposites influenced New Critis like
Brook and I A Richards.
 He resolved the old problem of the relation between form and content. Poem is
organic whole and its form is determined by its content & is essential to that content.
Meter is essential part not something superadded.
 For him art is not imitaion of what is (Plato) not creation of something new (Sidney),
not creation of what was unrealised (Aristotle) but re-creation of reality/discovery of
reality hidden behind the surface.

Mathew Arnold
Culture and Anarchy
 A series of periodical essays, compiled as a book

 Book shows high Victorian cultural agenda
 “Culture is the best which has been thought and said” (Preface)
 “Culture is a study of perfection. It seeks to do away with classes, to make the best that has been
thought and known in the world current everywhere, to make all men live in an atmosphere of
sweetness and light.”
 The book shows elitist rhetoric & cultural project as Arnold is against the ascendance of Middle
classes. His mission is like the civilizing mission of the colonizers.
 The essay shows his cultural and political criticism.
 His elitist and Eurocentric views.
 A seminal text which influenced later cultural theories.
 The book places culture against anarchy. It discusses aspects of culture that lead towards
perfection—such as sweetness & light, Hellenism, disinterested views of things, rejection of
orthodoxies etc. these aspects of the culture are set against the aspects of modern life which lead
towards Anarchy—such as philistinism, industrialism, barbarism, Americanism, Individualism,
Orthodoxies, Middle Class Liberalism, Fanaticism, Materialism, & Complacency.
The Function of Criticism at Present Time
 The essay maintains value of Critical faculty.

 According to Arnold “Criticism is the endeavor in all branches of knowledge—theology,
philosophy, history, art, science etc to see an object as in itself it really is.
 Criticism generates fresh and intelligent ideas; to create a climate of great ideas so that the
production of great works could be ensured. Thus criticism prepares the way for creation.
 Criticism must show disinterestedness, keeping itself aloof from “The practical view of things”, in
order to know the best that is known and thought in the world, and in its turn making this
known, to create a current of true and fresh ideas.
 The essay highlights the need of criticism in modern complex and anarchic world.
 The role of the critic in the society.
 The function of criticism is to propagate the best ideas so that they trickle down to the masses,
because, he believes that, truly great literature and thinking springs forth from an epoch of great
ideas, and these epochs are manifested when the great ideas reach the masses.
The study of Poetry
 The essay talks about high destiny of poetry which interprets life for us, consoles us, and sustains
us. Poetry is criticism of life. It should show high seriousness.
 “Poetry is the criticism of life; it should give answer to the question how to live?
 Touchstone method.

Thomas Stearns Eliot
Tradition and Individual Talent (1919)
1. Theory of Poetry:
 “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotions, but an escape from emotions; it is not the
expression of personality but an escape from personality.”This extinction of
personality and depersonalization of emotions is ensured by sense of tradition.
 He denounced Romantic literature as “imperfect in objectivity & asthetic distance.”
 He is anti-romantic and a classicist who believes in science, objectivity, order,
tradition, impersonality and medium. For him the difference between classicism and
romaticism is the one between order and chaos. He was anti-romantic and anti-
humanist classicist. He emphasized the value of tradition or authority whivh the
romantics rejected. He rejected Romantic subjectivity and believed that emotions in
poetry must be depersonalised. Artisitc self-effacement is essential for great art.
 Poetic Process:Act of creation is not expression of poet’s emotions; it is rather an act
of organisation of disperate and different experiences into a single whole. Poet’s
mind is full of chaotic and disorganized feelings. During poetic process organisation
takes place. So poetry is organisation, not inspiration. Artistic emotions expressed in
art are depersonalised and are different from the poet’s personal emotions. The
emotions expressed in art are not those of the artist, because there is a difference
between the man who suffers and the mind which creates. Even the emotions which
the poet has never personally experienced can serve the purpose of poetry. In poetic
process there is a concentration of a number of expressions, resulting in a new thing.
 Poet’s mind is like a ‘Catalyst’ and poetic process is like a chemical reaction. Poet’s
mind, like a catalyst, combines different emotions and creates something new. The
catalyst itself remains neutral and unaffected. Poet’s mind, like catalyst, is necessary
for the combination of emotions and experiences, but it does not undergo any change
during the process. The more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him
will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates. Poets personal emotions &
experiences should not find expression in his work.
 Poetic process is the process of fusing disparate experiences and emotions into new
wholes. Perfect poetry results when there is unification of sensibility-the emotional
and the intellectual, the creative and the critical facilities must work in harmony.
 Unification of sensibility means fusion of thoughts and feelings or a direct sensuous
apprehension of thought. The poet must feel his thought, like John Donne.
Dissociation of Sensibility results in bad poetry.
 Functions of Poetry: Not to instruct or please. But to impose order and unity on
chaotic and disparate experiences & emotions.
 Objective Correlative is the proper form of expressing the emotions in art. It may be
“ a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula for the
poets’ emotions, so that when the external facts are given, the emotion is at once
evoked. e.g. The mental agony of Lady Macbeth is conveyed not through direct
description but through the sleep walking scene where she uncociously repeats her
past actions. Here the external situation is adequate to convey the emotions.
Emotions are not directly comminicated but are embodied in a situation or chain of

events. So in Macbeth we find a suitable objective correlative for emotions. Hamlet
lacks it and is an artisitc failure. There is no adequate objective equivalent to
Hamlet’s feeling of anger. His disgust is in excess to his mother’s guilt.
 Objective correlative is a “vehicle of expression for the poet’s emotions.” It objectifies
and depersonalises poet’s emotions.
2. Concept of Tradition/Sense of Tradition:

 The writer must have historical sense i.e. sense of the tradition of writing, because it
ensures the necessary depersonalisation of the artist.
 Tradition represents the accumulated wisdom & experience of the ages. Its
knowledge is essential. Sense of Tradition does not mean adherence to the past. It is
rather conciousness of the main currents and trends of the past. It is the sense of the
pastness of the past and also the presence of the past. It implies recognition of the
continuity of literature from Homer to the present age.
 Individuality/Originality of the poet should not be considered seriously because the
most individual part of a poet’s work is that which shows the influence of the past
writers.
 No writer has a value in isolation. We should judge a poet by comparison with past
writers. Past guides the present and present modifies the past. When a great work is
produced, the whole literary tradition is modified. Every great writer adds
something to the literary tradition. Past guides the present and reciprocally present
explains the past. A good poem is a living whole of all the poetry that has ever been
written. Writers must seek guidance from the past. Tradition cannot be inherited. It
can be obtained by hard labor.
 The artists of anytime or all the times from an ideal community and an artist in the
present must achieve a sense of this community.
 Tradition is not immovable. It constantly grows. The whole of European literature
from Homer to the present age forms a single literary Tradition which writers should
acquire.
 A sense of Tradition, a respect for order and authority is at the core of Eliot’s
classicism. He rejects romantic faith in “Inner Voice”.
3. New Criicism & T. S. Eiot

 Like new critics he believes that a poem must be studied as a poem, not as a piece of
biographical or sociological evidence, or literary or historical material, or as a
demonstration of a psychological theory of literature or for any other reason.
 Like new critics, his main concern is with poetry.
 Like new critics he believes that the function of the critic is to turn attention from
poet to his poetry. The poem is a thing in itself, and it must be judged objectively,
without any biographical, sociological or historical considerations.
 Like new critics he sought to raise criticism to the level of science, in his objectivity &
scientific attitude. In his stress on comparison and analysis he has exercised a
profound influence on the new critics.
 But unlike the new critics he is against too close a scrutiny of a text, which he called
“Lemon-squeezing”

 He does not separate creative & critical activities. To him creation involves Criticism. So he
differs from Arnold. Creation has no cconcious aims. It is autotelic activity, which criticism is
not.
 He influenced Leavis & Cleanth Brook in their ideas of Tradition.
 His concept of Tradition is elistist & undemocritic. He talks of European Tradition only, and
excludes minority & female writers. However more democratic than Arnold as he gives
importance to miner writers also.
 He defines criticism as a disinterested exercise of intelligence… The elucidation of works of
art and the correction of taste. Here he echoes Arnold’s view and has influenced New Critics.

F. R. Lewis
Moral Formalism
1. Concept of Tradition/Culture
 He was profoundly influenced by Arnold & Eliot. Like Arnold’s “Cultural
Anarchy” he used the term “Technilogico-Benthamite Civilization” for
modern urban and industrialised society.
 His book “The Common Pursuit” (1952) contains an essay “The function of
Criticism, reminding us Arnold’s & Eliot’s essays with the same title. Even
the title of this book is taken from Eliot’s passage where he speaks of the
critic’s task as engaging in the common pursuit of true judgement.
 Similarly his book “Revaluation” (1936) is an Eliot-like sorting out of the true
Tradition of English Poetry, Just as his Great Tradition (1948) opens with the
classic Leavisian ‘discrimination’ that the great English Novelists are Jane
Austen, George Eliot, Henry James and Jospeh Conard. Thus identifying
great works of literature he establishes the Arnoldian & Eliotian Tradition or
canon for promoting cultural health; for cultural refining, filtering and
revitalizing. Such identified great works extablished as Tradition can promote
values of ‘life’. These great works promote human awareness, awareness if
the possiblities of life, against the forces of materialism, barbarism,
industrialism etc in a technologico Bbenthamite Society. These great works
represent a ‘minority culture’ ambatted with a mass civilization.
2. Leavisite Criticism
 He edited a journal “Scrutiny” (1932-53) in which his & his followers essays
(Leavisite Criticism) were published. Leavisites or Cambridge School of
Critics share many cultural beliefs with American New Critics. But they also
believe that literature trains feelings, sensibilities and powers of reasoning; so
they unlike the New Critics show a moral tone.
 These critics were the pioneers of New Criticism. Richard ‘Practical Criticism’
(1929), Empson’s ‘Seven types of Ambiguity’ (1930), & Leavis’s ‘The great
Tradition’ (1948) & ‘The Common Pursuit’ (1952) were all expressions of new
attitude to criticism and teaching of literaure. Both Richards and empson
share with Leavis a belief in the educative value of literature and close
reading & practical Criticism.
 His essay “Literary Criticism & Philosophy” (Published in the ‘Scrutiny’)
shows his refusal to theorise his critical position in abstract terms. It was a
response to Rene Wellek’s view that Leavis should have a theoritical basis for
his criticism.
 He refused to theorise his position because he believed that the job of Critic is
to attain a peculiar completeness of response in order to enter into the
possession of the given poem… in its concrete fulness.
 John Casey, in his essay “Object, Feeling & Judgement: F. R. Leavis” argues
that the implied theory that underlines Leavis’s critical practice is both
innovative & cogent, since it embodies synthesis of expressionist & mimetic
theories of art.

3. F. R Leavis & New Critics
 In his concern with the concrete speciality of the ‘text itself’ ‘the words on the
page’, he was a kind of New Critic. He says, “the critic is concerned with the
work in front of him, as something that should contain within itself the
reason why it is so & not otherwise.
 His work is practical, empirical and anti-theoritical.
 Like New Critics he believed in the autonomy of literature, but he also
stressed its value in moral & cultural education.
 Although he shows formalism & ahistoricism like the New Critics, but he is
different from them because his close address ti the text is only to establish
the vitality if its ‘felt-life’, its closeness ti experience, to prove its moral force
and to demonstrate, by close scrutiny, its excellence.
 Just as his moral fervour distinguishes him from the more abstract ora sthetic
formalism of the New Critics, so too does his sociological & historical sense.
Literaute to him is weapon in the battle of cultural politics, as it in the past
ensured the strength of pre-industrial culture. To him as to Arnold & Eliot,
the past and the past literature act as a measure of the ‘wasteland’ of the
present age.
 As for the New Critics too, great works of literature are vessels in which
human values survive, but for Leavis they are also to be actively deployed in
an ethico- sociological cultural politics. So Leavis’s project is both the elitist
and culturally pessimistic. Thus he, in Britian, represents Marxism and
Sociology.

I. A. Richards
Textual & Psychological Approach (Psychological Humainsm)
Theory of Poetry
 Nature and value of Poetry: In his essay “Poetry & Beliefs” he says.
“The business of the poet… is to give order & coherence to a body of experience. To do
so through words which act as its skeleton, as a structure by which the impulses which
make up the experience are adjusted to one another & act together… words function in
the poem in two main fashions: as sensory stimuli & as symbols… one form of the
symbolic function of words is “pseudo-statement.”… scientific statement requires
verification while emotive utterance or pseudo statement of poetry is accepted to be
true y attitude, by its effects upon our feelings, in bringing about emotional
organisation. Emotive utterance brings about organization. It releases, organises,
ballances, harmonises & systamatises the warring impulses & attitudes and brings
about psychological 7 mental balance and harmony.”
 From his essay ‘Science and Fiction’: Richards believes that mind or nervous system is
composed of different interests & impulses. In a healthy mind they are in equilibrium.
Various situations in life disturb their order. Poetry restores this order.
 He is more scientific in his psychological explanation of the process of poetic creation.
 Fuction of Poetry: He believes that there are conflicting desires, instincts, appetancies
in human mind. These conflicting pulls create uneasiness. The function of Art is to
enable mind organise itself. Art gives emotional balance, mental equilibrium, peace
and rest. It brings about harmony which gives pleasure; a tragic pleasure; a calm of
mind; all passion spent- a pleasure not resulting from purgation of impulses & feelings
but from organisation of them. Thus Richards resolves the problem of the sources of
tragic pleasure and the nature of Catharsis.
 In his essay “Meaning of Meaning” he maintains that Art brings about Psychological
adjustment in the author which is then communicated to the reader. To him poetry
differs from science both in its objective-to bring about psychological adjustment- and
in the kind of meaning it attributes towards, which are emotive rahter than refrential.
 Richards gives his psychological theory of value in his book “Principles of Literary
Criticism”. He does not give vague generalisation about asthetic process but give
scientific & psychological explanation to prove the nature and value of art. “Anything
is valuable that satisfies an appetency and the most valuable psychological state is that
which involves the satisfaction of the greatest number of appentancies in the writer
and the reader.
 Poetic Truth: Poetic truth is different from scientific truth. It is a matter of emotional
belief rather than intellectual belief. It does not need verification but is authenticated
by emotional reaction and attitude.
 Language of Poetry: Poetry is written in a special non-referential language-emotive
language. To him poetry is communication & the words are the means of
communication. To study of words is important to understand meaning of a work.
Words carry four kinds of meaning, i.e. total meaning of a word depends upon four
factors;
o Sense (literal meaning)
o Feeling (emotions and desires)

o Tone (of writer)
o Intention (the aim writer wants to achieve)
The words in poetry have emotive value & figurative language conveys these emotions
forcefully. Words have meanings in some context; but in poetry we have ‘missing
contexts’ and ambiguity. Sense and feeling have a mutual dependance. Meaning
(sense) evokes feelings & the feelings evoked determines or governs the meaning.
Words are ambiguous in themselves and they acquire new meaning when they are
changed with feelings.
Richards and New Critics
 He, like the New Critics is a staunch advocate of close textual stuy of a work. He
shows scientific method of analysis. His study of words influenced New Critics.
 But he differs from the New Critics because he takes into account the effects of a poem
on the reader. For him the real value of a poem lies in the reactions and attitudes in
creates, the equilibrium & peace it brings; harmonization of warning impluses it puts
into pattern.
 In “Practical Criticism” he established the basic tenets for close reading of poetry. It
encouraged attentive close reading of the text. He democratised literary studies
because in pratical criticism beind text for placed before everybody. These views
influenced the new critics.
 But his interest in psychology makes him different from the new critics.
 Starting from the Richards’s fundamental distinction between the referential language
of science & the emotive language of poetry, the New Critics explored alrenative &
more refined ways of describing the special character of literary language, as Brook,
called it Language of Paradox & Empson called it Language ambiguity.
 He like Arnold & the New Critics, also believed in the cultural role of literature.
Literature brings peace & rest to the individual as well as to the society. But his
approach is scientific and psychological.
 Process of Poetic Creation. His approach & difference from others like William
Wordsworth & Coleridge & Eliot (Eliot and Richards are more scientific. There is a
shift for relating literature to other disciplines.
 Un reliability of words & langauge. Words have no fixed meaning. The thing
influenced deconstructionists.
 Assesment of a work of Art (Nadia Anjum), Objectivity (Arnold’s disinterestedness)
 Psychological theory of value (Qurat ul Ain)
Human mind is a system of impulses. Impulses in mind/nervous system are received
unconciously. (Freud’s echoes)
 Shelley & Richards Platonism to reject Plato. Scienitic method to reject Science.

Liteary Criticism by Sir Shakoor

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Liteary Criticism by Sir Shakoor

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Plato’s “Republic”, “Ion”, “Phaedrus”

Plato’s Rejection of Poetry & Poets: (On four grounds)

1. Metaphysical/Intellectual/Philosophical grounds: (Plato’s theory of imitation”

Allegory of the cave:

It shows his fertile imagination. It attracted the post-structuralists.

Example of the Bed:

Bed, the type: Beds (particular beds made by the carpenter.

Real Bed (Idea) →Carpenter’s Bed →Painted Bed

Example of Mirror: Appearances of things, as a reflection of sun in water

Defense of Art/ Artist’s world by Aristotle, Sydney, Shelley and others.

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

 Cognition (Reason), Rational/Intellectual part. Best part represented by

Identification/fellow feeling with the hero/characters destroys the self. It leads

Negative capability/Empathy is rejected.

4. Inductive grounds:(general conclusion from particular examples)

 Poetic qualities- use allegories, analogies, metaphors & imagination

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

3. Origins & Growth of Greek Drama

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

ii. Means or Medium of imitation

Architecture HandicraftSurgery Cooking

Painting Dance Music Poetry

iii. Object of imitation

SeriousPoetry Comic Poetry

iv. Manner of imitation

Tragedy Epic Comedy Mock

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious, complete in itself, having a

Selfish & Basic feeling, but in tragedy it is selfless and impersonal.

3. Six Parts/Elements of Tragedy(in order of the importance)

The most germinal idea, echoes can be found in 18 th

By Birthmark (Odyssey) less artistic

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

Good, appropriate, consistent, life like

i. Man consciously plans and does

 Realistic (philosphically not idealist), systematic approach ( as in classification),

Sir Philip Sidney

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

Renaissance’s “Poetics”, “Aristotalisim in England”, “Echoes of Aristotle’s Poetics

1. Reason for writing this essay/Treatise

iv. Plato has banished poets from “The Republic”

v. Drama has pagan origin.

Nature and Function/Usefulness of poetry

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

ii. Function of Poetry

Sidney’s reply to some general

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

Objection to tragi-comedy “There should be no mingling of

He makes a distinction between laughter (Farcial comedy)& delight (Intellectual

D. Remarks on Diction Style &Versification

reflected the growing national consciousnessof the time and an increasing

speakers who represent four different points of view. The essay;

i. Compares modern dramatists with the ancients

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

His definition of drama/poetry/imaginative literature (Nature of art/poetry) (Concept

He defines drama as;

which one is more important? Why not imitation?

where does delight come from? Is it primary function or Secondary?

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

Function of the Art/Poetry

 Delight & instruction:

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

Composed by: Adnan Ghani Khan Pukhtoon BS English

 Johnson Defence of Shakespeare