Humanist criticism. Matthew Arnold

Август 9, 2022

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Humanist criticism. Matthew Arnold

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2. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip
3. Oscar Wilde / Matthew Arnold
4. Assumptions shared by Humanists and Aesthetes: 1. The imagination is a vital, perhaps the best, part
5. Origin of the Species (1859) By Charles Darwin
6. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like
7. [Matthew Arnold’s understanding of] Culture
8. Curiosity—a desire after the things of the mind simply for their own sakes and for the
9. There is a view in which all the love of our neighbor, the impulses towards action,
10. [Culture] is a study of perfection. It moves by the force, not merely or primarily of
11. “Sweetness and light”
12. Religion says: The kingdom of God is within you; and culture, in like manner, places human
13. [Culture’s] function is particularly important in our modern world, of which the whole civilization is, to
14. Now, the use of culture is that it helps us, by means of its spiritual standard
15. In thus making sweetness and light to be characters of perfection, culture is of like spirit
16. It is important, therefore, to hold fast to this: that poetry is at bottom a criticism
17. The question, how to live, is itself a moral idea; and it is the question which
18. A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life; a poetry
19. [Wordsworth] deals with more of life than they do; he deals with life as a whole,
20. Opening lines of F.R. Leavis’ The Great Tradition (1948) “The great English novelists are Jane Austen,
21. Literary canon
22. Great literature [for Leavis and his post-Arnoldian circle] was a literature reverently open to Life, and
23. [The] rock of defence of human nature. - Wordsworth, the “Preface”
24. Sometimes people who are together, if not hostile to one another, are at least estranged in
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Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin,

my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.
- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

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Oscar Wilde / Matthew Arnold

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Assumptions shared by Humanists and Aesthetes: 1. The imagination is a vital,

perhaps the best, part of our humanity; 2. The artist is a unique, perhaps the ideal, human type; 3. Art plays a crucial role to play in making human life richer, more meaningful and more worthwhile.

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Origin of the Species (1859) By Charles Darwin

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The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round

earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world.
- Matthew Arnold, third stanza of “Dover Beach” (1851)

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[Matthew Arnold’s understanding of] Culture

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Curiosity—a desire after the things of the mind simply for their

own sakes and for the pleasure of seeing them as they are…. [which] implies a balance and regulation of mind. - “Sweetness and Light”

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There is a view in which all the love of our

neighbor, the impulses towards action, help, and beneficence, the desire for removing human error, clearing human confusion and diminishing human misery, the noble aspiration to leave the world better and happier than we found it—motives eminently such as are called social—come in as part of the grounds of culture. - “Sweetness and Light”

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[Culture] is a study of perfection. It moves by the force,

not merely or primarily of the scientific passion for pure knowledge, but also of the moral and social passion for doing good. - “Sweetness and Light”

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“Sweetness and light”

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Religion says: The kingdom of God is within you; and culture,

in like manner, places human perfection in an internal condition. - “Sweetness and Light”

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[Culture’s] function is particularly important in our modern world, of which

the whole civilization is, to a much greater degree than the civilization of Greece and Rome, mechanical and external, and tends constantly to become more so…. The idea of perfection as an inward condition of the mind and the spirit is at variance with the mechanical and material civilization in esteem with us…. The idea of perfection as a general expansion of the human family is at variance with our strong individualism … our maxim of “every man for himself.” - “Sweetness and Light”

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Now, the use of culture is that it helps us, by

means of its spiritual standard of perfection, to regard wealth as but machinery, and not only to say as a matter of words that we regard wealth as but machinery, but really to perceive and feel that it is so. (Emphases added) - “Sweetness and Light”

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In thus making sweetness and light to be characters of perfection,

culture is of like spirit with poetry, follows one law with poetry. - “Sweetness and Light”

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It is important, therefore, to hold fast to this: that poetry

is at bottom a criticism of life; that the greatness of a poet lies in his powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life,—to the question: How to live. - “Wordsworth”

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The question, how to live, is itself a moral idea; and

it is the question which most interests every man, and with which, in some way or other, he is perpetually occupied. A large sense is of course to be given to the term moral. Whatever bears upon the question, "how to live," comes under it. - “Wordsworth”

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A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of

revolt against life; a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference towards life. - “Wordsworth”

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[Wordsworth] deals with more of life than they do; he deals

with life as a whole, more powerfully. - “Wordsworth”

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Opening lines of F.R. Leavis’ The Great Tradition (1948) “The great English

novelists are Jane Austen, George Eliot, Henry James and Joseph Conrad.”

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Literary canon

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Great literature [for Leavis and his post-Arnoldian circle] was a literature

reverently open to Life, and what Life was could be demonstrated by great literature. The case was circular, intuitive, and proof against all argument. - Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory, 42.

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[The] rock of defence of human nature. - Wordsworth, the “Preface”

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Sometimes people who are together, if not hostile to one another,

are at least estranged in mood and feelings, till perhaps a story, a performance, a picture, or even a building, but oftenest of all music, unites them all as by an electric flash, and in place of their former isolation or even enmity they are conscious of union and mutual love. Each is glad that another feels what he feels; glad of the communion established not only between him and all present, but also with all now living who will yet share the same impression; and, more than that, he feels the mysterious gladness of a communion which, reaching beyond the grave, unites us with all men of the past who have been moved by the same feelings and with all men of the future who will yet be touched by them. And this effect is produced both by religious art which transmits feelings of love of God and one's neighbour, and by universal art transmitting the very simplest feelings common to all men. - Tolstoy, “What is Art” (1896) [Translated by Aylmer Maude]