Functions of Literature

Functions of Literature

  • Submitted By: sarfraz
  • Date Submitted: 07/29/2011 8:24 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1010
  • Page: 5
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FUNCTIONS OF LITERATURE: Critics have been discussing from very early times about the function or functions of literature. Though they differ among themselves regarding the other functions of literature, they are all agreed on one point—that the main function of literature is to entertain the readers, or, in other words, to give them pleasure. Longinus was the first critic to lay down his thesis that loftiness or sublimity in literature has its end-ecstasy, transport, ‘lifting out of onself”.
The value of a work of literature can be assessed, according to Longinus, by introspection on the part of the reader or hearer: if he is carried away, transported, moved to ecstasy by the grandeur and passion of the work, then the work is good. The Greek word which it has become traditional to translate as sublime in English means literally height or elevation, and Longinus, in his essay On The Sublime, refers to those qualities in a work of literature which instantaneously create in the reader a sense of being carried to new heights of passionate experience; sublimity is the greatest of all literary virtues, the one which makes a work, whatever its minor defects, truly impressive. The ultimate function of literature, and its ultimate justification, is to be sublime, and to have on its readers the effect of ecstasy or transport that sublimity has. The sublime effect of literature, for Longinus, is attained not by argument, but by revelation, or illumination. Its appeal is not through the reason, but what we should call imagination. Its effect upon the mind is immediate, like a flash of lightning upon the eye.
Sidney voiced the opinion of Longinus when he said that the chief function of literature is to “move” “I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas,” he declared, “that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet”. Dryden was the next critic who cleared away the ancient stumbling block of criticism—the doctrine that the aim of the writer is...

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