Hi Class,
**Iāve only received 7 Final Drafts of the Midterm Essay. If you have not already done so, please post your final draft today!
For Wednesday:
1–Read “The Iron Tonic” graphic story and answer these two questions: What examples of the sublime are noticeable in this story? Second, how many gothic elements (there are 4) can you find in this story?
2–Review ideas for The Sublime:
The Sublime:
The sublime is the feeling that arises from something awe-inspiring, breath-taking, unique, incomparable, beyond words. The sublime can also be the object, concept, quality, or experience that launches such feelings. As several seventeenth- and eighteenth-century travelers noted, the Alps areĀ sublimeĀ in this sense because nothing at ground level prepares one for the view from their austere peaks, where earth and sky seem to meet (e.g., Caspar David Friedrichās famous painting,Ā Wanderer above the Sea of FogāSEE BELOWĀ (1817). Western aesthetics has been interested in the concept of theĀ sublimeĀ since at least the first century, when the Greek scholar Longinus wrote his treatiseĀ On theĀ Sublime.Ā But it was not until the publication of Edmund BurkeāsĀ A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of theĀ SublimeĀ and BeautifulĀ (1756) that it became a topic of philosophical interest. Burkeās opposition between beauty as that which is well-formed and pleasing andĀ sublimeĀ as that which is ugly, fearful and desirable all at once continues to inform thinking on this subject still. A particularly useful quote from Burke is: Sublimity may evoke horror, but knowledge that the perception is a fiction is pleasureful.ā In effect, Burkeās distinction is between that which we perceive with simpleĀ pleasureĀ (the beautiful) and that which truly moves us (sublime). German philosopher,Ā Immanuel KantĀ adopts Burkeās opposition and uses it to discuss the limits of the imagination and the senses in contrast to the power of reasonāfor him, sublime is exalted and great.
Below: The HahnenĀ is aĀ mountainĀ of theĀ Urner Alps, overlookingĀ EngelbergĀ in the Swiss canton ofĀ Obwalden. It has an elevation of 2,606 metres above sea level. (from Wikipedia article on The Sublime)
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