MATTHEW ARNOLD : THINKING ACTIVITY
➣ Do you agree with Mathew Arnold's views on detachment, disinterestedness, fallacies like historical and personal, touchstone method and his definition of Poetry? If you agree, why and on what grounds do you agree? If you disagree, why and what are the points of disagreement?
Arnold's view on the first great principle of criticism enunciated by Arnold is that of the disinterestedness or detachment.disinterestedness on the part of the critic implies freedom from all prejudices personal or historical. .......Real estimate, the only true one, is liable to superseded, if we are not watchful, by two other kinds of estimate. The historic estimate and the personal estimate, both of which fallacious.
We have turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us, without poetry. our science will appear incomplete, and the most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry.Arnold assests that literature and especially poetry, is CRITICISM OF LIFE.
In poetry, this criticism of life must conform to the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. Truth and seriousness of matter felicity and perfection of diction and manner as are exhibited in the best poet. Thus, the superior characters truth and seriousness, in the matter of substance of the best poetry, is inseparable from the superiority of diction and movement marking its style and manners.
ARNOLD'S DEFINITION OF POETRY:-
"As a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty."
"The impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science."
Arnold's touchstone method of criticism was a really a comparative system of criticism. Arnold was basically a classicist. He admired the ancient Greek, Roman and French authors as the models to be followed by the modern English authors. The old English like Shakespeare. Spenser or Milton were also to be taken as models.
Arnold took selected passages from the modern authors and compared them with selected passages from the ancient authors and then decided their merits. This method was called Arnold's Touchstone Method. However this system of judgement has its own limitation. The method of comparing passage with a passage is not sufficient test for determining the value of a work as a whole.
Arnold himself insisted that we must judge a poem by the 'Total Impression' and not by its fragments. but we can further extend this of comparison from passages to the poem as whole unites. The comparative method is an invaluable aid to appreciation of any kind of art. It is helpful not merely thus to compare the masterpiece and the lesser work but the good with the not so good, the sincere with the not quite sincere and so on. He said that Most good man to have always in one's mind lines and expressions of the great and the apply as touchstone method.
➣ Do you agree with Mathew Arnold's views on detachment, disinterestedness, fallacies like historical and personal, touchstone method and his definition of Poetry? If you agree, why and on what grounds do you agree? If you disagree, why and what are the points of disagreement?
Arnold's view on the first great principle of criticism enunciated by Arnold is that of the disinterestedness or detachment.disinterestedness on the part of the critic implies freedom from all prejudices personal or historical. .......Real estimate, the only true one, is liable to superseded, if we are not watchful, by two other kinds of estimate. The historic estimate and the personal estimate, both of which fallacious.
We have turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us, without poetry. our science will appear incomplete, and the most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry.Arnold assests that literature and especially poetry, is CRITICISM OF LIFE.
In poetry, this criticism of life must conform to the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. Truth and seriousness of matter felicity and perfection of diction and manner as are exhibited in the best poet. Thus, the superior characters truth and seriousness, in the matter of substance of the best poetry, is inseparable from the superiority of diction and movement marking its style and manners.
ARNOLD'S DEFINITION OF POETRY:-
"As a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty."
"The impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science."
Arnold's touchstone method of criticism was a really a comparative system of criticism. Arnold was basically a classicist. He admired the ancient Greek, Roman and French authors as the models to be followed by the modern English authors. The old English like Shakespeare. Spenser or Milton were also to be taken as models.
Arnold took selected passages from the modern authors and compared them with selected passages from the ancient authors and then decided their merits. This method was called Arnold's Touchstone Method. However this system of judgement has its own limitation. The method of comparing passage with a passage is not sufficient test for determining the value of a work as a whole.
Arnold himself insisted that we must judge a poem by the 'Total Impression' and not by its fragments. but we can further extend this of comparison from passages to the poem as whole unites. The comparative method is an invaluable aid to appreciation of any kind of art. It is helpful not merely thus to compare the masterpiece and the lesser work but the good with the not so good, the sincere with the not quite sincere and so on. He said that Most good man to have always in one's mind lines and expressions of the great and the apply as touchstone method.
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