published_or_final_version / Philosophy / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992.

There are three interdependent aspects to Diderot's conception of the "sublime". The first, as developed by Diderot, the encyclopaedist or theorists is arrived at objectively. The "sublime" differs from the beautiful only in the number and quality of the "relations" inherent in the object to be studied and in the ability of the spectator to be affected by them. The genius who can see and interpret the "sublime" is unique in his species. He is an "original" who introduces a certain amount of the bizarre into his work, thus breaking the accepted rules of art of his time to bring about progress. The second aspect, as developed by Diderot, an "homme sensible", is subjective. The genius who is "sensible" is sad, virtuous, persecuted, bordering on madness, and an avowed enemy of all rules and restraint. His aim is to give an exact imitation of nature. The "sublime" for him has the sense assigned to it by Edmund Burke in his "0f the Sublime and the Beautiful", or by the contemporary French translations of Young's "Eight Thoughts”, and is allied to the ideal of virtue set forth by the novels of such authors as Richardson. The third, as developed by Diderot, "philosophe ou homme "sage", is a partial synthesis of the various influences reacting upon him, notably that of Garrick's ideal of the illusion of truth for the stage. The "sublime" is a perfect balance between the two forces "sensibilite" and taste, a balance which is always being destroyed as a nation progresses and develops its successive ideals of "beauty. The genius is the man who can- best accommodate his ideal with the one existing in the nation at the time he produces his work. Such a man is Racine who has combined simplicity with a great idea and has adapted them to the mould prescribed to him by his period. The artist's moral code which may be the opposite from that proper to the ordinary run of people allows him to find the truth, while his genius allows him to use it in such a way as to create an illusion or "mensonge" which sways the spectators more than the actual facts would have done. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (M.A.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Littérature comparée--Paris 3, 1993. / Bibliogr. p. 489-508. Index.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

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This thesis examines the relationship between nihilism and postmodernism in relation to the sublime, and is divided into two parts: theory and literature. Beginning with histories of nihilism and the sublime, the Enlightenment is constructed as a conflict between the two. Rather than promote a simple binarism, however, nihilism is constructed as a temporally-displaced form of sublimity that is merely labelled as nihilism because of the dominant ideologies at the time. Postmodernism, as a product of the Enlightenment, is therefore implicitly related to both nihilism and the sublime, despite the fact that it is often characterised as either nihilistic or sublime. Whereas prior forms of nihilism are 'modernist' because they seek to codify reality, postmodernism creates a new formulation of nihilism – 'postmodern nihilism' – that is itself sublime. This is explored in relation to a broad survey of postmodern literature through a series of interconnected themes. These themes – apocalypse, the absurd, absence, and space – arise from the debates presented in the theoretical chapters of this thesis, and demonstrate the ways in which nihilism and the sublime interact within postmodern literature. Because of the theoretical and literary debates presented within it, this thesis concludes that it cannot be a thesis at all.

Sublimity is a term originally coined by Longinus to deal with an author¡¦s strong influence upon the reader by using his excellent rhetorical techniques to compose a great poem that stirs up the reader¡¦s innermost emotions. Undoubtedly it is a literary concept. But, after Burke released his A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful in 1757 and Kant published his Critique of Judgement in 1790, the sublime lost its original meaning, turning out to be a counterpart of the beautiful. Since then, the sublime fell into a rubric of aesthetics. However, when we study Longinus¡¦s, Burke¡¦s, and Kant¡¦s theories, we are likely to run into the contradictions between them. For instance, Kant insists that ¡§we must not point to the sublime in works of art¡¨ (Critique 100). His words imply that the sublime cannot refer to literature either. If so, then we could not call Milton¡¦s Paradise Lost or Emily Bronte¡¦s Wuthering Heights sublime. On the contrary, if literature can be included in the sublime, then Kant¡¦s ¡§disinterested delight¡¨ in the judgment of taste will fail to make a good case for itself. It is the conflicts between theories that cause my research interest. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to discuss the meanings of the sublime, and try to solve the two problems: ¡§whether literature can be included in the sublime¡¨ and ¡§whether the sublime contains morality.¡¨ This thesis contains four chapters. Chapter I is ¡§Introduction,¡¨ which briefly states the basic concepts of the sublime and the questions of research. Chapter II is ¡§The Theoretical Foundation of the Sublime,¡¨ which discusses several important theories of the sublime, and attempts to solve the conflicts between different theories. Chapter III is ¡§The Romantic Sublime,¡¨ which discusses respectively Wordsworth¡¦s aesthetics and Weiskel¡¦s psychoanalysis of the sublime. And, Chapter IV is conclusion. In this thesis, we can see the evolution of the sublime and Wordsworth¡¦s endeavors to integrate these theories.

The Gothic novel becomes a vogue in the mid-eighteenth century, and its conventions still influence works today that try to fully present horror. The Gothic novel is distinct in its mood, style, and settings. It has established a tradition of horror fiction in which sexuality, violence, death, and immorality are interwoven. These themes work with supernatural power and spectral settings that transmits a deathly atmosphere. Put in such a context, characters cannot but feel the horror produced by those settings and the medieval style; henceforth, they are always situated in the mood of darkness which causes the feelings of sublime. These themes, settings, and style help the Gothic novel to form its own Gothic conventions which still influence the production of horror fiction. The first chapter analyzes how the sublime and uncanny effects produced by the conventions of the Gothic work against the morality of the time. Matthew Lewis manipulates the spectral techniques brought by the sublime and uncanny to pierce through the regulation of morality. The sublime effects transform horror experienced in reading into pleasure and the spectrality in supernatural descriptions makes the morality seem less apparent. The supernatural phenomena divert the reader from attention to issues of morality. The second chapter is to investigate how a set of standards concerning sexuality becomes binding and imperative to men and women in The Monk. In Lewis¡¦s novel, womanhood is the incarnation of the sublime, its sublimity consisting of a force that compels male and female characters to obey regulations concerning sexuality. Thus, from the sublimity of womanhood, a sexual ideological develops in the novel, Staying pure and sacred in body and soul is not only binding to woman but also to man. The thirst for power on the part of the novel¡¦s villains is an attempt to violate and destroy the power of womanhood; the novel¡¦s heroes are trying to embody that power. The third and final chapter is to investigate how the gendered bodies determined the gendered identities with the assistance of Judith Butler¡¦s theory of the gendered matrix, which defines gender types and forms gender identity. Following their gendered identity, each character is citing the corresponding ideological sexual strand. Their activities actually ¡§cite¡¨ the gendered concept and perform the gender identity through their bodies. Even though the stereotyped characters seem flat, there is still a gray area in the novel where clear-cut gender¡¦s performativity is improbable. Thus, on occasion, Lewis undercuts the gender constructions that he seems to endorse, making the Gothic and all the effects it produces a smoke screen behind which he can occasionally go against the grain of the (sexual) morality of his time. This double-layer quality of The Monk¡¦s morality makes reading that novel an act of piercing through artistic forms and wondering if what lies underneath them represents indeed the novel¡¦s core meaning.