Achieving the Sublime is an Individual and Dynamic Quest

To start, we must understand what the sublime is in it broadest sense. Through understanding it's basic definition in regard to aestheticism, we will be able to better understand the fluidity of the term. In the most general form of understanding, the sublime is the magnitude of greatness something achieves through thoughtful craft. Longinus' thoughts on the sublime suggests that he thinks of it "as a quality that has a powerful emotional impact on its audience, or, more specifically, an impact that awakens the audience members to their higher nature" (Longinus pg. 354). Nonetheless, this is just one classical interpretation of the sublime that differs from more modern definitions. The diverse nature of ideas regarding the facility of the sublime themselves prove that the term is quite progressive. The essays we have discussed in this course focus on reaching the sublime in a literary sense.

 

 "Greatness, the argument runs, is a natural product, and does not come by teaching” (Longinus pg. 347). This quote emphasizes that it is impossible for someone to create a work of sublimity from a prescribed method they have learned from a predecessor. “When a man of sense and literary experience hears something many times over, and it fails to dispose his mind to greatness or to leave him with more to reflect upon that was contained in the mere words, but comes instead to seem valueless on repeated inspection, this is not true sublimity” (Longinus pg. 350). Of course their are features necessary to reach the sublime (Longinus pg. 350): 

1. Power to conceive great thoughts.
2. Strong and inspired emotion.
3. Certain kinds of figures.
4. Noble diction.

6. Dignified and elevated word-arrangement.  .....but they cannot be forced and will not work in all scenarios necessarily. 

Considering these notions, it would also be fair to suggest that the reception of sublimity may also differ from person to person. It would be naive to assume that all audiences are capable of understanding a celestial sort of greatness in all mediums, genres, and topics. I found truth in this while looking through Ye Mimi's "Was Being Moved?" project. All of the works by individual artists undoubtedly hold immense value to their creators, they may only "move" or inspire a fraction of viewers. "Sublime maintains connection to emotion but is not equate with it" (Longinus pg. 350). When creating a powerful and meaningful text or piece of art, an emotional experience is never guaranteed. This could be a factor in "erasing the boarder between poetry and image making". Both artistic and creative forms have the same capabilities to be incredibly indicative and substantial, but not everyone will receive a piece of poetry or art in the same way. "Grandeur is dangerous when left on its own" (Longinus pg. 350) and that is exactly what is happening when writers and artists release their work into the world to be taken as it is. For example, some of the features in Penny Goring's portion of the project may be deemed 'freaky' or 'odd' and seemingly meaningless, but they were obviously created for a reason and to some, including the creator, withhold a lot of power. Maybe if there was a written portion attached, explaining purpose, more audiences would understand their significance but that would take away from the are itself and the intellectual journey a viewer must take to try and understand.

I find Bawarshi's concept of genre function to also help break down the fundamentals of my theory that achieving the sublime lacks a predestined method and varies from person to person, from medium to medium. Interest and passion in regard to a specific concept or idea holds a lot of weight when attempting to create a subliminal work. This is how writers (and even visual artists) determine the genre and ultimately the purpose of what they are composing. "...when writers begin to wite different genres, they participate within these different sets of relations, relations that motivate the,, consciously or unconsciously, to invent both their texts and themselves." (Bawarshi pg. 17). This notion stated by Barwarshi implies that through creation of text, and through molding text to be received in the most appropriate and successful way, a writer will find themselves through the discourse and author function. This isn't limited to only writer's, however. Bawarshi mentions that there has been a drastic "reconceptualization of genre ant it's role in the production and interpretation of text and culture"(Bawarshi pg. 17) and that it has "transformed genre study from a descriptive to an explanatory act" (Bawarshi pg. 17) and this is seen in art. Art is in a sense trying to explain itself. There is a reason the Ye mimi project contains pieces of all sorts of different natures. It really is 'poetry in practice', poetry with a major visual presence, poetry that is trying to occupy a different space and comprise a whole new genre that better explains the roots of its creators.

"Symbolically as well as materially, the author function helps delimit... a certain discursive construct... so that the way we recognize a certain text and its author as deserving a privileged status-a text worthy of our study say, rather than simply be used- is regulated by author function (Bawarshi pg. 20-21). I think this question helps us determine if the "Was Being Moved?" project as sublime. We are not investigating this compilation of textual and visual art 'just because', we are studying it so that we can learn more about author function and intent. Through exposure, we as students can become more adept in our abilities to analyze and understand these atypical types of works, the detail and magnitude of this project, in itself, emphasize that a greater meaning lies within its roots. These notions withstanding, I will say yes, yes this I see this project as a sublime, or at least a potential sublime. I may not understand its full magnitude and meaning now, but for its creators and probably some of its viewers, this project likely has provided a deep rooted response. Just because I cant uncover its full meaning right now, does not mean it lacks value. I simply just do not understand it at this moment in time, but that is personal to my knowledge and experience.