Lecture Literary criticism - Lecture 14: Classical criticism. A classic should comprehensively represent the spirit of the nationality it belongs to and have some claim to universal meaning as well to deal with the questions of general philosophical importance. | CLASSICAL CRITICISM A classic should comprehensively represent the spirit of the nationality it belongs to and have some claim to universal meaning as well to deal with the questions of general philosophical importance. In the 20th century the critics used to carry out two practices (i) Sometimes classicism meant the imitation of Greek and Latin themes in modern literature (ii) At other times it meant the imitation of Greek and Latin forms in composing work of any themes The formal imitation of two works of antiquity one Greek and other Roman may be used as keys for understanding classicism ii-e :poetics” by Aristotle and “Art of Poetry” by Horace. Criticism actually took its roots with the appearance of “Poetics” in which certain rules were laid down for writing serious dramas. Aristotle’s poetics became the touchstone of all arts in the succeeding years,Critics all over the world pronounced their judgments according to the direction set out in it with poetics began the classical . | CLASSICAL CRITICISM A classic should comprehensively represent the spirit of the nationality it belongs to and have some claim to universal meaning as well to deal with the questions of general philosophical importance. In the 20th century the critics used to carry out two practices (i) Sometimes classicism meant the imitation of Greek and Latin themes in modern literature (ii) At other times it meant the imitation of Greek and Latin forms in composing work of any themes The formal imitation of two works of antiquity one Greek and other Roman may be used as keys for understanding classicism ii-e :poetics” by Aristotle and “Art of Poetry” by Horace. Criticism actually took its roots with the appearance of “Poetics” in which certain rules were laid down for writing serious dramas. Aristotle’s poetics became the touchstone of all arts in the succeeding years,Critics all over the world pronounced their judgments according to the direction set out in it with poetics began the classical criticism. The classical critics further believed that the primary aim of all arts is didactic and pleasure and entertainment comes in second phase. They emphasized on form,balance order and proportion in poetry. The classical critics were men with established values and morals and the artists to be so. The classical critics disproved of any experiment in form contradictory to the classical rules. They also rejected the fight of imagination a work of art. Classical critics don't approve off the display of subjective feelings,idiosyncrasies,and emotions in want an artist to be objective in treatment of realities of life. The poet should preach but indirectly if he preaches directly then he would be more of a priest preaching from the pulpit than a creative artist. Hence Aristotle’s rules were considered to be the last word in every field of rules were looked upon with awe. But with the coming of Dryden and Johnson on the literary scene,critics no longer remained .
