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Tuesday, 29 March 2016
Popular Culture Vs Elite Culture
Assignment
Name :- Gujarati Krishna v.
Class :-
M.A. SEM 2
Topic :-
Popular Culture Vs Elite Culture
Paper No :- 08 Cultural studies
ROLL NO :- 17
Submitted :-
Smt S.B.Gardy Department of English, Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University,
Bhavnagar.
Introduction :-
Culture’ is a term which has may
connotations cultural is refinement or development of mind tastes, etc. by
education, training and experience.‘Culture’, derives from ‘Cultura’ and
‘colere’ meaning ‘to cultivate’. It also meant ‘to honour’ and ‘project’ by the
19th century in Europe it tastes of the upper class (elite).‘culture’ is the mode of producing meaning and ideas.
Margaret Mead: “Culture is the learned behaviour
of society or a subgroup.”
Clifford Geertz : “Culture is simply ensemble of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.”
Clifford Geertz : “Culture is simply ensemble of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.”
Cultural studies is not “a tightly
coherent, unified movement of agenda”, but a “loosely coherent group of tendencies,
issues and questions”.‘Cultural
Studies’ is a discipline which is interested in the processes by which power
relations between and within groups of human beings organizes cultural
artefacts and their meanings. ‘Cultural Studies’ is a field of academic study
that finds its origin now. It is a study of ‘culture’ or ‘cultures’ and power
structure of society. ‘Birmingham centre for contemporary cultural
studies’ (BCCCS) in UK is the centre for cultural studies. Critics like Raymond
Williams, Richard Hoggart, and later Stuart Hall, Tony Bennett and others made
‘Cultural Studies’ popular.
Thus, culture and cultural elements which made ‘culture’ is an important tool for Cultural Studies. In the 1950s and 1960s a change in focus came about in cultural studies, in analysis. Scholars started taking popular culture seriously. In 1969 the department of popular culture at Bowling Green University (USA) launched the ‘journal of popular culture’.The journal carried essays on Spiderman comics, rock music, amusement parks, the detective movies and other forms of popular culture. It is in popular culture studies that Cultural Studies finds its first movement.
Thus, Cultural Studies looks at mass or popular culture and everyday life. There was a time before 1960s when popular culture was not studied by academies. But Cultural Studies gives importance to popular culture even more than elite culture or elite arts. So, today, study of popular culture and comparison between popular and elite culture is happen widely.
Popular Culture :-
Popular culture is the culture of masses. Popular culture is the set of practices, artefacts and beliefs and shared by the masses. Cultural studies started to study popular culture and now many disciplines including semiotics, rhetoric, literary criticism, film studies, anthropology, history, women’s studies, ethnic studies, and psychoanalytic approaches, critic examine such cultural media as pulp fiction, comic books, television, film advertising, popular music and computer cyber culture. They assess how such factors as ethnicity, race, gender, class region and sexuality are reshaped in popular culture.
Popular culture is the culture of masses. Popular culture is the set of practices, artefacts and beliefs and shared by the masses. Cultural studies started to study popular culture and now many disciplines including semiotics, rhetoric, literary criticism, film studies, anthropology, history, women’s studies, ethnic studies, and psychoanalytic approaches, critic examine such cultural media as pulp fiction, comic books, television, film advertising, popular music and computer cyber culture. They assess how such factors as ethnicity, race, gender, class region and sexuality are reshaped in popular culture.
There are four main types of popular culture analyses: Production analysis, textual analysis, audience analysis and historical analysis. These analyses seek to get beneath the surface, denotative meanings, and examine more implicit, connotative social meanings. These approaches view culture as a narrative or story-telling process in which particular texts or cultural artefacts consciously or unconsciously link themselves to larger stories at play in the society. A key here is how texts create subject positions or identities for these who use them.
Sometimes, popular culture creates doubt to elite culture. It can so overtake and repackage a literary work that it is impossible to read the original text without reference to the many layers of popular culture that have developed around it. The popular culture reconstructs a work and can open it to unforeseen new interpretations. So, study of popular culture becomes necessary for cultural studies to know culture in a better way.
Elite culture :-
Elite culture
is widely studied by critics. Elite culture can be defined as those “high”
cultural forms and institutions that were exclusive to, and a distinguishing
characteristic of, modern social elites. It is a term that particularly
references the cultural tastes of the established aristocracy, the commercial
bourgeoisie, educated bureaucrats and political power breakers, and the
professions in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Elite culture is very “high”
and “intellectual” culture. It has very closed cultural domains, more omnivorous
and not free as popular culture. Elite culture is in very few scales and it has
bounded structure. It is sometimes marginalized by popular culture, but it
affected on popular culture always.
In easy words we can say that, elite
culture means, the literary and artistic culture of educated and wealthy ruling
classes. Elite culture is institutionally expressed in universities, academies,
coffee houses, libraries and Masonic lodges. These are some ways where elite
culture can be recognised. And they become symbols of elite class and elite
culture.The culture of the wealthy minority section of the population was
projected as the ‘standard’ or ‘true’ culture. So, academic studies would look
at ‘great works of art’ or ‘classical authors’. The taste of the elite culture
is also very high and standard. Some examples are classical songs, classical
thought provoking intellectual documentary movies, picture and art galleries
can be called as examples of elite culture. Thus, greatness, standardisation
and intellectuality are important for elite culture.
Popular culture Vs Elite culture: Comparison with example:-
Popular culture is a culture for majority and Elite culture is considered and known as ‘high’ or ‘great’, ‘intellectual’ culture. And popular culture is considered as ‘law’ and ‘mass’ culture. Meanings are governed by power relations and elite culture. Elite culture controls the terms of the debate.
Popular culture is a culture for majority and Elite culture is considered and known as ‘high’ or ‘great’, ‘intellectual’ culture. And popular culture is considered as ‘law’ and ‘mass’ culture. Meanings are governed by power relations and elite culture. Elite culture controls the terms of the debate.
Elite
culture, as known as great, is respected by popular culture. But elite culture
rejects and insults popular culture. Non-elite views on life and art are
rejected as ‘tasteless’, ‘useless’ or even stupid.
Elite culture is of literary and educated
wealthy elite group. But popular culture is of common, simple, rural and
unliterary people of mass or society. So, elite culture is always expressed in
universities, libraries. And popular culture is unwritten and oral. Folklores,
fairs and entertaining television serials are examples of popular culture.
Elite culture is always ambiguous and not simple one. But popular culture is
very simple and presents human emotions and human life as it is, in a simple,
understandable way. For example, classical music, philosophical literature,
grammar schools, critical analyses, poetry, encyclopaedias are always liked by
elites, and they show elite culture, whereas folk music, popular sports,
movies, entertainer arts, news papers, novels are examples of popular culture.
Popular culture reflects real mentality, true
picture of society. Elite culture reflects highness or greatness of that
society. So, if we want to study real society and human nature, we should study
popular culture and if we want to study goodness and intellectuality, we should
study elite culture. For example, majority of society does not read the writing
of Rabindranath Tagore or Shakespeare’s plays and these are known as
respectable arts. But any critic or elite does not study famous novels of
contemporary writer seriously as considering these as art and relegating them
to the realm of popular culture.
Elite culture is one part of popular culture but elite
culture becomes different and separate from popular culture. Majority of
popular culture never see or study elite culture but popular culture is a
subject of study of elite culture. But after studying popular culture, many
times elite culture rejects it as stupidity. And popular culture always see
elite culture as respected though not study it or because they cannot study
it.Both the cultures are important for study. Popular culture is the set of
beliefs, values and practices that are widely shared. Popular culture is a true
reflection of society and elite culture reflects intellectual level and
greatness of society very well.
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write brief note on the views of I.A. Richards on the importance of metaphor, personification and visual memory in poetic language
Assignment
Name :- Gujarati
Krishna V.
Class :- M.A. SEM
2
Topic
:- write
brief note on the views of I.A. Richards on the importance of metaphor,
personification and visual memory in poetic language
Paper No :- 07 Literary
Criticism and Theory.
ROLL
NO :- 17
Submitted :- Smt S.B.Gardy
Department of English Maharaja,
Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University,
Bhavnagar.
-I.A Richards as a critic of
Figurative Language
In
criticism if we remember some important and well-known critics then we must
remember I.A Richards, in full Ivor
Armstrong Richards, who was born Feb. 26, 1893, Sandbach,
Cheshire, Eng.—died Sept. 7, 1979, Cambridge,
Cambridge shire), English critic, poet, and teacher who was highly
influential in developing a new way of reading Poetry that led to
the New criticism and that also influenced some forms of reader-response
criticism.
Richards was educated at Magdalene
College, Cambridge, and was a lecturer in English and moral sciences there from
1922 to 1929. In that period he wrote three of his most influential
books: The Meaning of the Meaning (1923), a
pioneer work on semantics; and Principles of
Literary Criticism (1924) and Practical
Criticism (1929), companion volumes that he used to develop his critical
method.
The latter two were based on
experimental pedagogy: Richards would give students poems in which the titles
and authors’ names had been removed and then use their responses for further
development of their “close reading” skills. Richards is best known for
advancing the close reading of Literature and for articulating the
theoretical principles upon which these skills lead to “practical criticism,” a
method of increasing readers’ analytic powers.
During the 1930s, Richards spent much
of his time developing Basic English, a system
originated by Ogden that employed only 850 words; Richards believed a
universally intelligible language would help to bring about international
understanding. He took Basic English to China as a visiting professor at Tsing
Hua University (1929–30) and as director of the Orthological Institute of China
(1936–38).
In
1942 he published a version of Plato’s Republic in Basic English. He
became professor of English at Harvard University in 1939, working mainly in
primary education, and emeritus professor there in 1963. His speculative and
theoretical works include Science and Poetry (1926; revised
as Poetries and Sciences, 1970),Mencius on the
Mind (1932), Coleridge on Imagination etc.
Four Kinds
of Meaning
A study of his practical criticism together with
his work ‘The Meaning of meaning reveals his interest in verbal and textual
analysis. According to him a poet writes to communicate and language is the
means of that communication. Language consists words so study of study of words
so study of words is significant to understand the meaning. The meaning depends
on.
So,Now Let's have a look on each on them in
detail.
1 Sense:-
Sense
is very much important in the figurative language. By sense it meant
something that is communicated by the plain literal meanings of the words.
Therefore it matters a lot.
2 Feeling:-
Feeling deals with the emotions and sentiments of the writers.It Refers to
emotional attitudes desire, will, pleasure, unpleasure and the rest words
express feelings.so it is important.
3 Tone:-
Tone is significant as far as Figurative language is concerned. Tone here means
the writers attitude towards his audience. The writer chooses his words and
arranges them keeping in mind the taste of his readers. Feeling is only state
of mind.
4 Intention:-
So far as intention is concerned in the figurative language. It is authors
conscious or unconscious aim, it is the effect that one tries to produce. Also
intention controls the emphasis, shapes the arrangement, or draws attention to
something of importance. Hence it is very much important in the figurative
language.
“Sources of
misunderstanding in poetry”:
The source is very
much important in the figuratie language.In practical criticism a study of
literary judgment, I.A.Richards has given the theory of Figurative language. He
starts discussion first on sources of misunderstanding in poetry. He says that
it is very difficult to find the source which creates misunderstanding.
Further, he says that there are four sources of misunderstanding as far as are
poetry is concerned. As one source of misunderstanding is connected with the
other in different way it becomes very hard to diagnoses, with certainty, the
source of some particular mistake or misunderstanding. This kind of source of
misunderstanding can be possible but rarely.
To some
readers meter and verse form of poetry are as powerful as distraction as a barrel
organ or a brass-bend is to one trying to solve difficult mathematical. But as
we know, meter and rhymes are essential part of poetry and cannot be
differentiated. Therefore, the reader should a poem several times. Because the
constant reading of poem can solve the problem regarding the meter and verse.
Reader should read a poem for grasping the concept of it. Perhaps the constant
readings can solve the various doubts about the poem. These misunderstanding of sense of the poetry must be
solved by the reader. So that he can grasp the idea of the poem.
Here
I.A Richards also says that the source of the misunderstanding in the
poetry.This complicated situation gives rise to misunderstanding or wrong
notion that syntax is of less significant in poetry then in prose and that the
proper way of understanding poetry is through a kind of guess-work, which may
even be called intuition. Such notions are hard solve. Because they are true to
some extent. This aspect of truth in poetry makes reader most deceptive and
misleading. I.A. Richard warns his readers against this danger.Therefore I.A
Richards also makes remarks
“In most poetry the sense
is as important as anything else;
It is quite as a subtle,
and as dependent of the syntax as in
Prose; it is the poet’s
chief instrument to other aims when it is not
Itself his aim. His control
of our thoughts is ordinarily his chief means to the
Control of our feeling, and
in the immense majority of instances we miss nearly everything
Of value if we misread his
sense.
“The significance of visual
memory”:
Here in this essay of
Figurative language the significance of the visual memory is very much
significant in short we can also say that a proper understanding of figurative
language required close study of the poem. Reader should read the poem into the
context of close reading. its literal since must be carefully followed, but
such literal reading must not come in the way of imagination appreciation
of it judicious balance must be struck between literalism and imaginative
freedom . The aim of the poem must be clearly understood for without such and
understanding any judgment of the means the poet has used would be fallacious.
New critics give importance to means first then the end of the poem. Because by
doing this, they can learn the language – metaphor, figure of speech etc... At
art, the end of the poetry can be achieved then the liberty can be given to
analysis poem from anyway.
Source of Misunderstanding in Poetry
As far as misunderstanding is concerned many a times it occurs in the poetry in
that misunderstanding occurs because sometimes what a poet wants to say and
what the reader understand. So According to I.A. Richards there are four
sources of misunderstanding of poetry. It is difficult to diagnose with
accuracy and definiteness, the source of some particular mistake or
misunderstanding of the sense of poetry. It arises from inattention, or sheer
carelessness. I.A. Richards warns readers –In most poetry the sense is as
important as anything else it is quite as a subtle, and as dependent on
the syntax, as in prose it is the poet’s chief instrument to other aims when it
is not itself his aim. His control of thoughts is ordinarily his chief means to
the control of our feelings, and in the immense majority of instances we
misread his sense.” Hence I.A Richards makes remarks about the misunderstanding
in the poetry.
But many times it is observed that sometimes Over-literal reading may cause
misunderstanding in the poetry. Hence an over literal-reading is as great a
source of misunderstanding. Careless intuitive reading and prosaic
‘over-literal reading are the simple-godes the justing rocks. Defective
scholarship is a third source of misunderstanding in poetry. The reader may
fail to understand the sense of the poet because he is ignorant of poet’s
sense. Afar more serious cause of misunderstanding is the failure to realise
that the poetic use of words is different from an assumption about language
that can be fatal to poetry. Literary is one serious obstacle in the way of a
right understanding of the poetic words. According to Richards-poetry is
different from prose and needs a different attitude for right understanding.
The Nature of Poetic Truth:
So far as the nature of the
poetic truth is concerned, it differs from Scientific Truth as it is very well
said by I.A Richards. In the principle of literary criticism he writes “It is
evident that the bulk of poetry consists of statement which only the very
foolish would think of attempting to verify. They are not the kind of things which
can be verified.
So if it is connected with
what was said in chapter 16 as to the natural generality of verge of reference,
we shall see another reason why references as they occur in poetry are rarely
susceptible to scientific truth or falsity. Only references which are brought
in to certain highly complex and very special combinations, so as to correspond
to the ways in which things actually hang together, can be either true or false
and most references in poetry are not knit together in this way. But even when
they are on examination, frankle false, this is no defect. Indeed, the
obviousness of the falsity forces the reader to reactions which are incongruent
or disturbing to the poem. An equal paint more often misunderstood, their truth
when they are true, is no merit. Hence the nature of the poetic truth is very
well observed by I.A Richards.
The Value of Figurative
Language
In any literary work of art
the value of figurative language is very much an inevitable part. Figurative
language can create problems. It is difficult to turn poetry into logical
respectable prose. Only through accuracy and precision is combined with a
recognition of the liberties is combined with a recognition of the liberties
which are proper for a poet, and precision is combined with a recognition of
the liberties which are a recognition of the liberties which are proper for a
poet, and the power and value of figurative language.
Thus
we may also say that the poet is rather negligent in the choice of means he has
employed to attain his end. The enjoyment and understanding of the best poetry
requires sensitiveness and discrimination with words a nicety, imaginativeness
and deftness in taking their sense which will prevent the poem in question, in
its original form, from attentive readers. Hence those mixed metaphors are
necessary to make the language eye-catching as well as well-ornaments.
A Health, a ringing health,
unto the king, of all our hearts today! But what proud song, should not
followed on the thought, nor do him wrong? ………………….. Away into the sunset-glow.
There are various comments
on the above piece of the hyperbole of sea-harp. The only concrete simile in
the octave is the likening of the sea to a harp-surely a little extravagant.
There is no doubt that the
similarity between the sound of a harp and the sea but in poetry such things do
happen. It is clear that the effect proposed by the poets is, “an exhilarating
awakening of wonder and a fusion of the sea, lightning and spring, those three
‘most moving manifestations of Nature.’
Mixed
Metaphors :-
Mixtures in metaphors work
well if in the mixture the different parts or elements do not cancel each other
out. The mixture must not be of the fire and water like. ‘Woven’ does not mix
well with sea and lightening and so here the mixed metaphor is a serious fault.
Figurative
Language:
The poet is rather
negligent in the choice of means he has employed to attain his end. The
enjoyment and understanding of the best poetry requires a sensitiveness and
discrimination with words, a nicely, imaginativeness and deftness in taking
their sense which will prevent the poem in question, in its original form
receiving the approval of the most attentive readers.
The
Value of Personification:
Personification comes
naturally to us. Personification may not express sense but it expresses the
feelings of the poet towards what he is speaking about personification enables
the poet to clear and comprehend the difficult work. Personification should not
be over-elaborated. There are degrees of personification. If it is
over-elaborated it becomes over-burdened.
Comparative
Criticism:
Richards warns his readers
against the dangers of over simple forms of ‘comparative criticism’. A critic
has compared the poet and Shelley is clear in the conception. One thing should
be noted that ‘end’ and ‘means’ both differ. As two poets are often closely
paralleled in their intents, divergence in their methods does not prove one
poem better than the other, ‘Comparative Criticism’ has value under conditions
and circumstances.
“When after five years of
‘antics’ chiefly concerned with the cloud- shadows, he turns to the cloud
itself in its afternoon dissolution, he cuts the personification down, mixing
his metaphors to reflect its incoherence, and finally, ‘O frail steel issue of
the sun,’ depersonifying it altogether in mockery of its total loss of
character. This recognition that the personification was originally an extra
vantage makes the poem definitely one of fancy rather than imagination to use
the Wordsworthian division but it rather increases than diminishes the
descriptive effects gained by the device. And its peculiar felicity in exactly
expressing a certain shade of feeling towards the cloud deserves to be
remarked.”
Analysis of the poem with the help of
“figurative language of poetry” by I.A.Richard
Joy and woe are woven fine
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine,
Under every grief and pine,
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so,
We were made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know,
Through the world we safely go.
A clothing for the soul divine,
Under every grief and pine,
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so,
We were made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know,
Through the world we safely go.
- by William
Blake
In this poem poet William Black
uses some figures of language like Paradox, personification, exaggeration or
Hyperbole. So let’s discuss it.
1. Paradox :
- Joy and woe. We know that Joy means Happiness and woe
means sadness and this both are together in very first line of this poem. So,
we can say that here poet used paradox in first line of this poem.
2. Personification:- clothing
for the soul divine Personification gives human characteristics to
inanimate objects, animals, or ideas. And here poet says that clothing for the
soul divine. We all know that soul can’t wear clothes but
here poet used personification in this line.
3. Personification :- Runs
a joy it is also personification because we all know that joy
can’t run.
So, we can say that here poet William Black
uses so many figures of language for his poem
‘ Joy and woe are woven fine’.
Conclusion:
Briefly, a proper understanding of figurative
language needs closer study. Its literal meaning must be traced. Its literal
meaning cannot be found in any imaginative appreciation of it. There should be
a judicious balance between literalism and imaginative freedom. One should
comprehend the meaning of poetry properly and then come to the judgment whether
it has any fault or not.
I.A.Richards says :-
“The
chemist must not require that the poet writes like a chemist, not the moralist,
not the man of affairs, nor the logician, nor the professor, that he writes as
they would. The whole trouble of literalism is that the readers forget that the
aim of the poems comes first and is the sole justification of its means. We may
quarrel, frequently we must, with aim of the poem, but we have first to
ascertain what it is. We cannot legitimately judge its means by external
standards which may have no relevance to its success in doing what it set out
to do.”
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Victorian prose writers.
Assignment
Name
:- Gujarati Krishna v.
Class
:- M.A. SEM 2
Topic :- Victorian prose writers.
Paper No
:- 06 Victorian age
ROLL
NO :- 17
Submitted
to:- Smt. S.B.Gardy Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar
University,
Bhavnagar.
Introduction
It was an era of material of affluence , political
consciousness, democratic reforms,
industrial progress, scientific advancement, social unrest, educational
expansion, empire-building and religious uncertainty. Many thinkers and writers
felt satisfied with the general condition of the age. But some like Ruskin and
Carlyle raised frowns against the soul-killing materialism of the age.
(1) Ruskin as an outstanding prose writer of his age
Introduction:
Ruskin (1819-1900) was a sensitive
soul who pitted himself against the inhumanity of the age of machine. Born in
the middle of the Industrial Revolution, he raised his prophetic voice against
the rank materialism which had been ushered in the industrial expansion and
cut-throat competition. But what is more, he was an artist himself 23i a keen
lover of all art. He made himself felt in the field of art criticism as well as
in that of social criticism. Add to that his remarkable sense of vigorous and
colourful style. So Ruskin's work and achievement have to be studied under
three heads as given below:
As an art critic, Ruskin did not concern himself only
with painting. He went ahead, and in some of his writings, particularly The
Seven Lamps of Architecture and The Stones of Venice, he came
forward to discuss the art of architecture. His fundamental point, which he
repeated over and over again, was, in his own words "that certain right
states of temper and moral feeling were the magic powers by which all good
architecture had been produced." For him art was to be considered as the
spiritual history of a nation. He emphasized the relation between art and life,
and art and morality. "Art," he asserted, "in all its forms was
but a manifestation of a sound personal and social life." Art he
considered to be an action; and, therefore, as indicative of the artist's
temper and spiritual condition as any other important action of his. Though he
favoured principles of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood yet he keenly opposed
their slogan "Art for the sake of art." The "seven lamps of
architecture," according to him, are:
(i) Truth (ii) Power (iv) Beauty (v) Life
(vi) Sacrifice (vii) Memory
(viii) Obedience.
Ruskin's as social critic : Ruskin's object as social critic and reformer
was to quote Compton-Rickett, "to humanise political economy." The
conventional "political economy" which Ruskin called
"nescience," and elsewhere, "a bastard science," owed its
origin to Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations which was the bible of the
political economists of Ruskin's age—such as Mill and Ricardo. Unto This
Last was a remarkable work by Ruskin, where he somewhat systematically set
about the task of challenging the pontifical utterances of self-important
political economists. He gave a new definition of wealth and value, but, most
of all, he apparently succeeded in demolishing the superstructure of "the
bastard science" by shaking its very foundations. The political economists
based all their principles on the assumption of "the economic man".
Ruskin tried to show that there was none like an economic
man, that is, a man who is wholly motivated by considerations of monetary
profit. Ruskin contended that our motive power is not the desire of gain, but a
soul. He emphasised the importance of what he called "social
affections" in determining the actions of a normal human being. Thus he
tried to nullify all the conclusions of the political economists by challenging
their very premises.
(2) Matthew Arnold as an essayist
Arnold is considered one of the
most significant writers of the late Victorian period in England. He initially
established his reputation as a poet of elegiac verse, and such poems as “The
Scholar-Gipsy” and “Dover Beach” are considered classics for their subtle,
restrained style and compelling expression of spiritual malaise. However, it
was through his prose writing that Arnold asserted his greatest influence on
literature. His writings on the role of literary criticism in society advance
classical ideals and advocate the adoption of universal aesthetic standards.
Arnold's
prose writings articulate his desire to establish universal standards of taste
and judgment. In his highly regarded Essays in Criticism (1865), he
elaborates on this key principle, defining the role of critical inquiry as “a
disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate the best that is known and
thought in the world, and thus to establish a current of fresh and true
ideals.” For Arnold this endeavor should not be limited to literature, but
should embrace theology, history, art history, science, sociology, and
political theory, with pertinent standards drawn from all periods of world
history. Arnold's approach was markedly eclectic, and in “The Literary
Influence of the Academies,” the second of the Essays in Criticism, he
pointedly contrasts the isolation of English intellectuals with European
urbanity, hoping to foster in his own country the sophisticated cosmopolitanism
enjoyed by writers and critics on the European continent. Similarly, Culture
and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism (1869), widely
viewed as one of Arnold's most important works, was motivated by his desire to
redress what he saw as the smug provincialism and arrogance of English society.
The essay is a sociopolitical analysis of England's class structure in which
Arnold identifies three major classes: Barbarians (the aristocracy),
Philistines (the middle class), and the Populace (the lower class). While Arnold
praised the aristocracy for their refined manners and social assurance, he also
condemned them for their conservatism. “Philistines” Arnold considered
hopelessly uncouth though innovative and energetic. The lower class he
dismissed as an ineffectual, inchoate mass. Arnold argued that as the middle
class gradually assumed control of English politics, they must be transformed
from their unpolished state into a sensitive, sophisticated, intellectual
community. The alternative, he contended, would be a dissolution of England's
moral and cultural standards. Arnold also endorsed the eventual creation of a
classless society in which every individual would subscribe to highly refined
ideals based on the culture of ancient Greece.
(3) Carlyle as an essayist
One of the foremost writers and intellectuals of his era,
Carlyle wrote influential works on The French Revolution, Cromwell and
Frederick the Great, emphasising the cult of a great man as national moral
leader.
Carlyle was born in Ecclefechan, Dumfries and Galloway, as
the son of a stonemason and small farmer. He was brought up in a strict
Calvinist household. At the age of 15 he went to University of Edinburgh,
receiving his B.A. in 1813. From 1813 to 1818 he studied for the ministry of
the Church of Scotland, but abandoned this course and studied law for a while.
Carlyle wrote contributions for Brewter's Edinburgh
Encyclopedia, also contributing to such journals as Edinburgh Review and
Fraser's Magazine. From 1824 he was a full-time writer and undertook thorough
study of German literature, especially Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Carlyle's
essays on German philosophy introduced many new ideas to the British public. He
also produced a translation of a work by Goethe, which was highly acclaimed.
As an essayist Carlyle's career began with two pieces in the
Edinburgh Review in 1827. He expressed sympathy for the condition of the
working class in the long essay Chartism (1839). In 'The Negro Question' (1850)
he addressed the subject of West Indian slavery in intemperate and for the
modern day reader doubtly repugnant terms. Carlyle's cynicism with English
society was evident in the Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850). As in his historical
studies, Carlyle insisted the importance of the individual, and raised serious
questions about democracy, mass persuasion, and politics. This also isolated
him from the liberal and democratic tendencies of his age. In the 20th-century
his reputation waned, partly because his trust in authority and admiration of
strong leaders, which were interpreted as foreshadowing of Fascism.
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