Group Presentation: Greek Antiquity

My participation in my group presentation, literary criticism in Greek antiquity, was nearly all-encompassing, which was a pleasure thanks to my reliable group. I had my hand in organizing, creating, and developing our presentation.

First, I created a major concept possibility for our presentation - I proposed that we turn the classroom into Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." By bringing up current affairs that many would be familiar with, I intended to let students apply reason to a subject, question, or statement. This way students would be realizing Plato's metaphor of the cave - we can escape the illusions of reality in the cave if we use philosophical reasoning. This would demonstrate Plato's methodology for his literary theory, and could simultaneously be related to Aristotle's idea that the illusions may have importance as well as truth.

Our group favored Naki's presentation concept of demonstrating the mimetic, so my concept was never realized. However, I also contributed to Nakia's concept. I designed an alternative example to explain the mimetic: The popular vampire book-movie Twilight fashions vampires in a historically unusual way - they are beautiful, super powerful, and twinkle in the sunlight. Here is a clip I gathered to exhibit this; it is the trailer to the first Twilight movie:



The way vampires appear in Twilight contradict the characteristics that vampires were first given - often grotesque, magical, and harmed by sunlight. I intended to have students point out the discrepancies between original vampire and Twilight vampire. These characteristics that vampires were first given are looked at as the literal creation of the vampire - the 'ideal' vampire. This can be compared to Plato's distinction of the ideal and the imitation, and from there, again, may be related to Aristotle.

My contribution to Nakia's concept was scrapped for lack of time, as we had enough material. So I ultimately contributed to the presentation by incorporating a discussion topic into our demonstration of the mimetic. I discussed Horace regarding the birth videos, asking "Are the real, disgusting details of a real birth necessary to capture the essence - Longinus' 'sublime,' if you will - of 'birth?' Or can we do without the real details. Perhaps the imitation birth captures our ideas of 'birth' more clearly because it can convey subjective feelings that we have when the birth is our own."

Once receiving the answers of the students in a discussion, Horace was related to Plato and Aristotle. If the students think that the imitation does capture our ideas of birth, then it seems they side with Aristotle - that we can learn something from the imitation. However, if the students think that the imitation does not capture our ideas of birth, and we need the real thing, then they side with Plato - that the imitation is not "heavenly," and so it is practically useless.

Weekly Reflection: Week 1, Importance in Literature

What is most important in a work of literature? This question was the focus of discussion last class. It is important first to recognize the absurdity of this question. It is akin to asking, 'What is most important in a painting?' Take Monet's The Stroll, for example.Where do you even begin? - The sky? The grass? The figures? I can't say. The loftiness of the question makes it as massive a question as, 'What is most important in life?' For, how can we know exactly what is important in literature if we can't even say what is important in all of life? Importance is something of a hierarchy in this respect, in that the importance of a greater idea may encompass the importance of a lesser idea. For example, if happiness is most important in life, then happiness should be most important in literature. And, if achievement is most important in life, then achievement should be most important in literature. I can see no way around this.

Murray seems to agree with me in the book Classical Literary Criticism, where on the first page she puts this quote by T. S. Eliot: "Our criticism from age to age will reflect the things that the age demands" (Murray vii). The accounts of classical literary criticism that follow make that quote seem a prophecy. In Plato's Ion, the importance is the way the audience understands a work - Ion understands Homer through divine intervention, not through any skill of understanding Homer's literature. In Plato's Republic, the importance is the utility of a work for society - literature should not put bad ideas into impressionable young minds, only good ideas, even if the bad are true; literature should not discourage fighters from defending their country by causing a fear of death; literature should not show the gods in demeaning light. For Aristotle in Poetics, the importance is in the distinction of construction in literature, such as the distinction between epic and tragedy. For Longinus in On the Sublime, the importance is on the audiences feelings about a work.

The multitude of views on importance in literature in the classical world shows an immense lack of consensus. Topics vary from construction to feelings to social utility. This makes for an endless list of topics that could come up. Then, is the initial question, "What is most important in a work of literature?," hopeless? Not quite. It's just that the literal answer is relative to the audience - it changes based on what else we consider important. In this, all of the topics discussed in the classical world seem equally important.

Works Cited_

Murray, Penelope. Introduction. From Penelope Murray and T. S. Dorsch. Classical Literary Criticism.