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"'Under every poetry,' it has been said, 'there lies a philosophy.' Or we may say that every poetry is a philosophy. Many among the world's greatest poets are conspicuous for the strong moral and religious tone of their works. 'The poet, the preacher, and the philosophers, all,' as Leslie Stephens says, 'live in the same world and are interested in the same truths.' What is the nature of man and the world in which he lives, and what, in consequence, should be our conduct? The answer to these great questions may take a religious, a poetical or a philosophical form. From one point of view, then, poetry is a kind of philosophy which makes its appeal to the whole of man's nature, and not to one side only, as does abstract philosophy. 'Its object,' according to Wordsworth, 'is truth; not standing on external testimony, but carried alive into the heart by passion; truth which is its own testimony, which gives competence and confidence to the tribunal to which it appeals, and receives them from the same tribunal'"--Introduction. / Typescript.

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.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (v. 2: leaves 364-387).

Thesis (M.A.) in English--University of Maine, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Detroit, 1953. / "July 1953." Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-77).

Inaug.-Diss.--Rostock. / Lebenslauf.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.