From Existentialists
and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature
By Iris Murdoch
Literature
- Has an
artful intention, the language is being used in a characteristically
elaborate manner
- Has a
personal voice
- Is
playful, entertaining, mystical, illusory
- Leaves
space for the reader, must move the reader emotionally
- Art is
close dangerous play with unconscious forces. We enjoy art, even simple art, because
it disturbs us in deep often incomprehensible ways
- Struggles
with complex problems of aesthetic form
- Has a
unity, or struggles for a form – A poem, play or novel usually appears as
a closed pattern, but it is also open in so far as it refers to a reality
beyond itself, and such a reference raises questions about truth.
- Mimesis
– It shows us the world – one of the pleasures in art is the recognition
of what we vaguely knew was there but never saw before
- Anamnesis
– memory of what we did not know we knew
- If
nothing sensuous is present, no art is present
Why do we write literature?
- Matthew
Arnold: “More and more mankind will
discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to
console us, to sustain us. Without
poetry, our science will appear incomplete; most of what now passes with
us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry.”
- Matthew
Arnold: “Then comes the question as
to the subject-matter which criticism should most seek. Here, in general, its course is
determined for it by the idea which is the law of its being; the idea of a
disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate the best that is known and
thought in the world…”
- Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve: “…the idea of a classic implies in
itself something which has sequence and solidity, which forms a whole and
makes a tradition, something which has ‘composition,’ is handed on to
posterity and lasts.” “A true
classic…has enriched the human mind…has discovered some unequivocal moral
truth…has seized some eternal passion in that heart…”
- A deep
motive for making literature or art of any sort is the desire to defeat
the formlessness of the world and cheer oneself up by constructing forms
out of what might otherwise seem a mass of senseless rubble
- Provides
“notions of truth” – literature is truth seeking
- Sharpens
one’s sensibilities – increases one’s powers of understanding and one’s
capacity for empathy with other people
- Great
art is liberating—it enables us to see and take pleasure in what is not
ourselves. Literature stirs and
satisfies our curiosity; it interests us in other people and other scenes,
and helps us to be tolerant and generous.
Tolerance is connected with being able to imagine centers of
reality which are remote from oneself. Our personal growth is enhanced as we
learn our own place in the universe and as we learn about other cultures
- Literature
should be dulce el utile – delightful and
instructive.
- One of
the purposes is to improve morality – to produce good citizens (think
critically, make sound decisions, build pride in national language and
cultural heritage)
- To
prepare good workers – teach skills and and
behaviors
- To
create an elite
- To promote equity – works about women,
minorities
Plato and Literature (What would he have thought of Reality
TV?)
- Plato
was notoriously hostile to art—fearful of the irrational emotional power
of the arts, their power to tell attractive lies or subversive truths.
- Plato
favored strict censorship and wanted to banish the dramatists from the
ideal state.
- Plato
believed that art was the celebrations of unworthy things or distortions
of good things.
- Pornography
is the extreme instance of the use of private art to stimulate private
fantasies
The poets mislead us by portraying the gods as undignified
and immoral. Poets and also writers pf children’s stories, should help us to respect
religion, to admire good people, and to see that crime does not pay. Music and the theatre should encourage
stoical calmness, not boisterous uncontrolled emotion.
When artists imitate what is bad they are
adding to the sum of badness in the world; and it is easier to copy a bad man
than a good man, because the bad man is various and entertaining and extreme,
while the good man is quiet and always the same.
It may be said that Plato is a Puritan and this is a
puritanical aesthetic. Plato is of
course a Puritan; and doubtless had mixed feelings about the great artist
inside himself.
The theatre is the great home of vulgarity: coarse
buffoonery, histrionic emotion, slanderous ridicule such as Aristophanes
directed against Socrates. Good taste is
outraged by trendy showmanship, horrible naturalistic sound effects, and the
raucous participation of the audience.
Marxist view of art – Is it the artist’s task to serve
society? What responsibility does the
artist have to society? Can he or she be
reckless?
- Art
has the specific role—to be an instrument of social revolution (Charles Dickens)
- Propaganda
What are the most important events of the last 100
years that have caused our language to change?
Loss of organized religion
Freud, Marx, Darwin
9-11-01
WWI, WWII, Korea,
Viet Nam, Iraq
Multi-culturalism (Loss of social
hierarchy makes judgment more tentative)
Civil Rights Movement
Women’s Movement