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On the Technique of the Sublime

On the Technique of the Sublime HE SUBLIME IS CLEARLY an inexhaustible source of discussion, although the intensity of interest in the topic may wax and wane. Lately, it has even been incorporated in modern text theory (See Guerlac, “The Sublime in Theory,” and Nancy). This interest in the sublime can be traced to the treatise Peri hupsous by an unknown author usually dubbed Longinus. Although this work is no longer at the center of discussion about the sublime, the contribution of Peri hupsous to the rhetorical tradition has been extraordinary, not only in associating the literary sublime with the grandeur of its sources, but also in opening for wider discussion considerations about the impact of art on its audience. The readers initially most interested in the treatise (Boileau, Addison, and Blair, for example) focused mainly upon the literary aspects of the sublime. However, when Edmund Burke released his theories on the sublime in 1757, he hardly treated literary aspects at all,1 and Burke’s empiricist and psychological approach was succeeded in turn by the philosophical views of Kant. Thus, by the end of the eighteenth century the most influential discussions of the sublime turned from a specific interest in literature to a more general http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

On the Technique of the Sublime

MALM, MATS
Comparative Literature , Volume 52 (1) – Jan 1, 2000
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2000 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/-52-1-1
Publisher site
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Abstract

HE SUBLIME IS CLEARLY an inexhaustible source of discussion, although the intensity of interest in the topic may wax and wane. Lately, it has even been incorporated in modern text theory (See Guerlac, “The Sublime in Theory,” and Nancy). This interest in the sublime can be traced to the treatise Peri hupsous by an unknown author usually dubbed Longinus. Although this work is no longer at the center of discussion about the sublime, the contribution of Peri hupsous to the rhetorical tradition has been extraordinary, not only in associating the literary sublime with the grandeur of its sources, but also in opening for wider discussion considerations about the impact of art on its audience. The readers initially most interested in the treatise (Boileau, Addison, and Blair, for example) focused mainly upon the literary aspects of the sublime. However, when Edmund Burke released his theories on the sublime in 1757, he hardly treated literary aspects at all,1 and Burke’s empiricist and psychological approach was succeeded in turn by the philosophical views of Kant. Thus, by the end of the eighteenth century the most influential discussions of the sublime turned from a specific interest in literature to a more general

Journal

Comparative Literature – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2000

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