St. John of The Cross (rel)

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 543.

W. Blakeà 1^st vision 3 / 4 years old

- prosaic visions

- mystical cognition of the world

- dies unrecognized, Quite unknown as an engraver; not a successful poet, prophet

- a happy man (beautiful visions)

- his visions à written in verse, only 1- in prose

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more capable, accurate, flexible, language to convey meaning, hide secrets

- blank verse, regular stanzas, symbols, metaphors

- his works are like cosmos- cover everything

- strange names for his characters, e.g. Urizen, Thel, Luvah

1. The Book of Thel
2. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
3. Vision of the Daughters of Albion
4. America: A Prophecy
5. Milton
6. Jerusalem
7. The Four Zoas an aspect of human being

- God is the creator of the world, everything starts with God

- 2 types of God:

* God of Justice & Punishment (Old Testament- Jahwe)

* God (love & forgiveness, compassion)

- different concept of SIN (no sin, no Hell)

^ no sth that cannot be forgiven

^ less important thing, an error, but no permanent state

^ great sin: breaks the unity between man and God

^ Hell- no such a thingà no permanent damnation, no permanent separation from

God

è for him a stage, when we can realize we did sth wrong

è sins burn then

Urizen:

- demon of ambition, pride, excessive activity

- good but can be dangerous (if excessive)

- his danger is an ASPECT- can be, but don't have to, we can control it, overcome it

Luvah:

- goddess of love (passion, desire)

- sth uncontrolled, can be dangerous but can be overcome

~~ OPTIMISTIC VISIONS~~

- for him life is pleasure, living the full life is a joy

- he liked eating, drinking

- body & soul live together

- limiting your life to the body only is a huge imitation, pity

- what is spiritual in a man should be fed, enjoyed

Thel:

- a young princess, deeply bothered by death

- depressed

- moral of the story: a body don't disappear completely, mortal death is never complete; body can

change into sth else

WYKŁAD 3

THE ISSUE OF IMAGINATION (all romantic poets except Byron)

*some echoes of individualism

*you need imagination to see fully (6^th sense)

~Romantics don't ask “What is the world?” but “What is the world for me?”

~ imagination- necessary for the proper perception of the world

~ reason is the shadow, instrument but imagination is the most important

~ neo-classics also appreciate imagination but they understand it in other way

M.H. ABRAMS:

- human mind is perceived as a mirror, mirror of the world, the chief purpose of it is to reflect the

world (mimetic art)

mimeticà mimesis= imitation of reality

Romanticism: human mind is a mirror or a lamp (that projects to the outside by the internal part of

the mind)

repetition of the act of God- the creation of the world)

creativity-> is possible due to imagination (reflection is not enough)

Theory of Samuel T. COLERIDGE

~ a man of letters

~ studied philosophy (German)

~ Opus Magnum (biography)

~ discussions about imagination (in one chapter)

1. primary imagination (fancy)

- sth every human being has(e.g .combining elements to sth new, but not entirely

1. secondary imagination (imagination)

- given to artists only, scientists, academic

- the creativity: transforming, creating something completely virtually new

- a rare, precious thing

- thought + feeling that can transform elements

Powers attributed to imagination:

1) unifying (function) Romantics

- different branches of science appeared; specializations

- the world is not the whole, we can't have a global, general picture

- religion no longer provides overreaching picture of the world

- the task of creative people is to give unity (to see the secret web of connections)

2) mediating power (as a link between this world and the world beyond)

in religious, priests are believed to be such a link

romantic poet- the reputation of the act of God

a romantic poet-> such a priest

3) modifying power

- transforming things together (new value, new quality)

transfiguration

~ imaginationà its root is IMAGE

~ without images we would not have poetry at all

~ in neo-classic function of images was clear- purely decorative, ornaments, etc

~everybody is different, has different tastes- so judging literary work can be different for everybody

~ Romanticism- the image is the essence of the work, foundation ( no decorative role!- it's the core of the work)

~ symbol- wonderful type of an image

~ neo-classic- precision, clear (that's why using symbol for them could be suicidal- symbol is never clear)

Symbols:

*a lot of meanings

* not precise, vague Romanticism

* capacity

* possibility of different interpretations

WYKŁAD 4

ROMANTIC FICTION/ PROSE

Romantic poetry

v Robert Southeyà “Lake Poets”(because of biography, not because of classification)

“LAKE POETS”:

- Wordsworth (realism, nature), Coleridge, Blake

- revolutionary, inventive

- a certain period of rebellion, private, disobedient

- introduce innovations (different from neo- classics)

- individual

It's difficult to compare them.