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L3: What is a Classic? (Cont.) - Coggle Diagram
L3: What is a Classic? (Cont.)
Universality
: timeless
Historicity
: bound in time
T.S. Eliot
(1888-1965)
Born and raised in America, migrated to London in 1914
London was seen as the centre of the English language in the 19th century
In London, wrote critical pieces and poetry that exerted his authority in English literature
Converted from Protestant to Anglo-Catholicism, i.e. Roman Catholic
Eliot's idea of the classic:
Classics could only emerge from a mature culture
Maturity of the mind, i.e. continuity in the present and no conscious doubt of the future
Forgetting history, asserting superiority over another age due to modernity, is what leads to
provincialism
Maturity of manners
Maturity of language
Eliot's opinion on the closest thing to a classic in the English language:
Alexander Pope
(1688 - 1744)
Pope could not be seen as a classic as he came from a
provincial age
Summarises its culture within the limits of the language at the time
This is why Eliot believed Virgil was a classic (Latin is now a dead language), and why no classics of modern languages exist
Eliot believed in uniformity of culture, religion, etc. for a classic to emerge
Eliot believed the disintegration of Christendom lead to the decay of common belief and sense
Disintegration of Christendom = English Reformation (16th century), wherein the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and Roman Catholic church
Eliot believed England became too heterogenous for a classic to emerge
J.M. Coetzee
(b.1940)
Coetzee identifies with Eliot's speech, despite being against Apartheid (Eliot's speech can be seen as imperalist)
Coetzee describes South African literature as literature in bondage, as if written from prison
Coetzee felt provincial from culture and society in his writing as a white South African
Coetzee writes his experience with Bach, his first encounter with a 'classic'
He wants the experience to be transcendental, but writes that perhaps he only felt that way because he knew Bach himself was canonical, and was trying to overcome his provinciality by indulging in white South African high culture
During WWI, orchestras denied playing Bach due to him being German
However, Bach survived this test of time, and even survived being detached from what was his revival, i.e. the Germans using Bach as propaganda
Bach was continuously kept alive by musicians who enjoyed Bach's work for the sake of his music and nothing else
Coetzee's interpretation of Eliot's life and identity:
Coetzee sees two ways of interpreting a classic: transcendent and socio-cultural
Eliot's speech was a transcendent approach in order to overcome his provincialism
According to Coetzee, Eliot draws a path of lineage from Virgil, to Dante, to Eliot himself
Alternatively,
Kermode
interprets Eliot's speech as imperalist
Coetzee sees how Eliot moves himself, not just geopolitically (America to England), but transcendentally, but fictionally rearranging the literary canon to centre around him
Canon
: an ecclesiastic law; the authentic books of the Bible, any accepted scriptural authority
Literary canon
: a body of literary works traditionally regarded as the most important, significant, worth of study; established as being the highest quality and most enduring value; the classics
According to
Guillory
, canonical and noncanonical authors are meant to stand for particular social groups, dominant or subordinate, thus becoming a mirror in which social groups can either see themselves, or not
Since the 1980s, the literary canon had been considered controversial, dubbed the '
Canon Wars
'
After the expansion of civil rights, women and minorities began to study the canon and realised there were very few works by women and minorities
Many argued the canon was prejudiced, immoral; those against this notion excused the works by disguising them as 'universal'
Tompkins studied Hawthorne's work and argued that he was only included in the canon as he was friends with the men creating it, as at the time, Americans were hasty to forming their own literary canon
Cultural capital
: linguistic capital, English speaking, where speech is valued and one becomes socially credentialed (
Guillory
)
Symbolic capital
: a knowledge-capital that can be displayed upon request and entitles the possessor a well-educated person (
Guillory
)