The Task of Today and Other Seminal Essays

Part VII. Idea of Literature

271 Part VII Idea of Literature 272 273 Idea of Literature What is Art, what is Science, why are the Fine Arts fine, what are the intrinsic norms for classifying them in logical, hierarchical order, what the essence and substance of the Beautiful and the Sublime; what is Literature, what its intrinsic inherent characteristics, what its primordial purpose; are its norms of yesteryear, norms, thanks to which, certain writers of the past have become deathless; are these norms pertinent in our time and deserve careful study and application – these are the questions to which I have addressed myself in the article that follows. They are the burning issue of Literary Criticism today. Literary Criticism, or Appreciation, or Analysis, whichever you please falls outside the sphere of rigid Mathematics; we are in the realm of Opinion where a hundred learned men can differ, where debate often loses its scientific and philosophic serenity and degenerates into impassioned wrangling. And principles which have stood the test of time, and, until recently, were regarded as rather in the nature of things for centuries - principles like the primordial importance of a thorough knowledge of formal grammar for effective writing, like the need to master the principles of Prosody and Orthometry for sure success in poetic craftsmanship - these in certain quarters are being dumped, in School and College, on the scrap heap, or arc held up to scorn as a startling irrelevance. For my part, I believe that norms and uses that have proved their worth and efficacy, and have created immortal scholarship, should not be lightly dismissed with a supercilious wave of the hand, in the name of modernism. I believe, for instance that, while poetry should continue to find new forms, the assiduous, sustained and thorough effort to master the English classics, to write according to the brain-racking rules of English poetic diction and rhythm and rhyme, entail so much mental energy and drudgery and strain that the votary, who braves the long-drawn labours successfully, will emerge from them, more often than not, with an abundant, wealthy and refined vocabulary; will emerge from them a more scientific, a more philosophical and seasoned scholar, with skills done to a turn, with works enriched with deeper thought and finer phrase. Master the rules, then you can dump them - that is what I say. For good writing is not the result of chance; it is the product of profound 274 Science, assiduous Application, and unswerving Purpose. “Ce n’est pas assez de savoir la theologie pour ecrire la Tbeologie: il faut encore savoir ecrire, qui est une seconde science,’’ said Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Grand Epistolier de France. For the corpus of the ultimate causes or principles or laws or canons of soul-stirring Literature constitute not only a Science but a philosophy. Thus genuine Literary Criticism is neither the pouring of lavish praise, nor is it the pronouncement of sweeping condemnation. It is the fruit of’ a philosophical study and analysis of the text from all its bearings: each statement of either praise or blame must ne buttressed by solid, syllogistic reasons why. There is no room for passion here. Nor is there room for mindless judgments that spring without due ponderation from personal biases and preferences. Here unalloyed subjectivism is anathema. Furthermore, I believe that any study, if it is to proceed surely must begin by a clear definition of the said subject. The teaching of Literature must begin by a clear and distinct enunciation and scrutiny of the essential characteristics of Literature; else a student can, after years in School and College, come out with a mind befogged, confused and confounded, in so far as this subject is concerned; can end up unable to say, for instance’ why a Religious text, a political address like Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, a work of History, a speech from the dock like the Apology of Socrates becomes a deathless utterance, becomes; Literature; and all this because he has no idea of what aesthetic pleasure is, no idea of the essential qualities that transform a work originally intended for other purposes into a literary masterpiece. In the article that follows I have tried to give my own answers to the questions I have raised above. The article is in fact the first of ten chapters of an unpublished study at which I have laboured for six years and more to further this purpose...