Title: Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold: The Function of Criticism at the Present Time (pages 20-54) Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold: The Study of Poetry (pages 55-86)

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• Main Ideas
• Key words
• Questions that connect points
• Important points

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<aside> ✏️ Notes:

Main lecture notes

(pages 38-40) - (pages 40-42)

1. Taine

• Science methodology, philosophical assumptions, and practical applications found an admiring adherent and strong voice in him.
• He crystallizes what is now known as the historical approach to literary analysis.
• For Taine, a text is similar to a fossil shell that naturally contains the likeness of its inhabiter, who in this case i the author. To study only the text without considering the author and his or her inner psyche would, therefore result in an incomplete analysis.
• An investigation on both author and the text result in an accurate understanding of the literary work.
• He divides the influences into four main categories: race, milieu, moment, and dominant faculty.
• Taine posits that authors of the same race, or those born and raised in the same country, share peculiar intellectual beliefs, emotions, and ways of understanding.
• We must examine each author’s individual talents that make him or her different from others who share similar characteristics of race milieu and moment.
• A work of art is “the result of given causes” and can best be represented by using the formula race+ milieu+ moment+ dominant faculty = work of art.

1. Matthew Arnold

• Self appointed voice for English Victorianism, the literary epoch immediately occuring after Wordsworth and Shelley’s Romanticism
• He claimed that poetry can provide the necessary truths, values, and guidelines for society.
• Arnold believes that literature reflects the society in which it is written and thereby heralds its values concerns.
• For him, poetry is human kind’s crowning activity. He notes “ more and more human kind will discover that we have to turn poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us. Without poetry our science will appear incomplete: and most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry.
• Arnold asserts that the best poetry can and does provide standards of excellence, a yardstick by which both Arnold and his society should judge themselves.
• “a current of true and fresh ideas” to accomplish this goal, critic must avoid becominng embroiled in politics or any other activity that would lead to a form of bias, because critic must view society disinterestedly keeping aloof from the world’s mundane affairs.
• How then may the best poetry be achieved or discovered? This may be done by establishing objective criteria whereby we can judge whether any poem contains or achieves.
• The critic’s task is “to have always in one’s mind lines and expressions of the great masters, and to apply them as a touchstone to poetry” By comparing new lines to classical pems that contain elements of the “sublime” the critic will instantly know whether a new poem is good or bad.
• The critic functions as an authority on values, culture and tastes. This new literary watchdow must guard and defend high culture and its literature while defining what high culture and literature really are.
• a disinterested effort to learn and propogate the best that has been known and thought” “ to see the object as in itself it reallty is “ culture and anarchy” and “ a criticism of life”.
• Arnold seperated both the critic and the poet from society in order to create a type of poetry and criticism that could supposedly rescue society from its baser elements and preserve its most noble characteristics.
• His criticism serves as either rallying point or as a standard of opposition by which theorists can now measure their own critical statements. Arnold helped establish culture, particularly literature, as the highest object veneration among civilized people.

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<aside> 📎 Summary:

A brief summary and conclusion about the notes/lecture

The Evolution of Literary Criticism: From Taine to Arnold

The evolution of literary criticism has been marked by significant shifts in focus and methodology. This essay will explore the contributions of two influential figures in this field, Hippolyte Taine and Matthew Arnold, whose works have shaped our understanding of literature and its analysis.

Hippolyte Taine, a prominent figure in the 19th century, is known for crystallizing what is now known as the historical approach to literary analysis. For Taine, a text is akin to a fossil shell that naturally contains the likeness of its inhabitant, the author. He posited that an accurate understanding of a literary work results from an investigation of both the author and the text. Taine divided the influences on a work of art into four main categories: race, milieu, moment, and dominant faculty. He believed that authors of the same race, or those born and raised in the same country, share peculiar intellectual beliefs, emotions, and ways of understanding. Thus, a work of art is “the result of given causes” and can best be represented by the formula: race + milieu + moment + dominant faculty = work of art.

Matthew Arnold, on the other hand, was a self-appointed voice for English Victorianism, the literary epoch immediately occurring after Wordsworth and Shelley’s Romanticism. He claimed that poetry can provide the necessary truths, values, and guidelines for society. Arnold believed that literature reflects the society in which it is written and thereby heralds its values and concerns. For him, poetry is humankind’s crowning activity. He noted, “more and more humankind 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: and most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry.”

Arnold asserted that the best poetry can and does provide standards of excellence, a yardstick by which both Arnold and his society should judge themselves. He believed that the best poetry could be achieved or discovered by establishing objective criteria whereby we can judge whether any poem contains or achieves. The critic’s task, according to Arnold, is “to have always in one’s mind lines and expressions of the great masters, and to apply them as a touchstone to poetry.” By comparing new lines to classical poems that contain elements of the “sublime,” the critic will instantly know whether a new poem is good or bad.

In conclusion, the contributions of Taine and Arnold to literary criticism represent significant shifts in the focus and methodology of the field. While Taine emphasized the historical and sociological influences on a work of art, Arnold focused on the moral and cultural role of literature, particularly poetry. Their works continue to influence contemporary literary criticism, underscoring the enduring relevance of their insights.

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WEEK 14 Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice (4th edition) by Charles E. Bressler: Chapter 2: Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (pages 38-40)

Literary Criticism An Introduction to Theory and Practice (4th edition) by Charles E. Bressler: Chapter 2: Matthew Arnold (pages 40-42) Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold: The Function of Criticism at the Present Time (pages 20-54) Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold: The Study of Poetry (pages 55-86)