from On the Sublime by Longinus HS / ELA Definition, Language, Rhetoric, Sublime Display the Merriam Webster dictionary definition (http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/sublime) or other common definition of the term sublime on the board. Discuss at length the meaning of the word as it is commonly used in all contexts (including Chemistry). Working in pairs, have students create a list of synonyms and other related words. Distribute the text and discuss type, genre, etc. Note that it is what we would call a long essay written in an epistolary form (discuss definition of epistolary). Given that, have class discuss what they would expect to find in the text. Note that it was translated and when. Have all students number the sentences in each paragraph (A: 1-5 and B: 1-7). Note the difference in the second paragraph between numbering the sentences for ready identification and the numbers given for the five sources of sublimity. Read the text aloud slowly, emphasizing the number of each sentence, while students highlight in their copies of the text any unfamiliar words or phrases (including: loftiness, 1
eminence, confounds, imperious, illumines, enumerate, grandeur, endowments, figures, ornaments, majesty). Share as appropriate: Longinus is the conventional name of the author of the treatise On the Sublime, a work that focuses on the effect of good writing. Longinus, sometimes referred to as Pseudo-Longinus because his real name is unknown, was a Greek teacher of rhetoric or a literary critic who may have lived in the 1st or 3rd century AD. Longinus is known only for On the Sublime. Longinus was greatly influenced by the large amount of traveling he completed in his youth. He journeyed to countless cities such as Athens, Rome and Alexandria. On the Sublime is both a treatise on aesthetics and a work of literary criticism. It is written in an epistolary form. On the Sublime became an extremely influential text during the European and American Enlightenment, when it was widely available in translation. In particular, it had a profound influence on John Locke and the founding fathers of American democracy. Divide the class into small groups and assign one term to each group for definition. Read the text again aloud slowly, pausing at each term for the assigned group to share its definition. Have students footnote the definitions on a separate sheet for ready reference during the rest of the seminar cycle. Divide the class into five groups and assign one of the five sources for sublimity (Paragraph B) to each group. Each group works together to translate the source into clear, modern English, taking care to define any less-than-common terms such as figure of thought. Then jig-saw the translation groups into discussion groups of five students each, made up of one member from each translation group. Have the members of each discussion group share their translations of the five sources and discuss until clear. 2
What word or phrase from the text would serve as a good title for this excerpt? (round-robin response) Why did you pick that word / phrase? (spontaneous discussion) According to Longinus, does the sublime appeal to reason or emotion? Refer to the text. What does Longinus mean when he writes that the sublime sways every reader whether he will or not? In paragraph B, Longinus writes that the first two conditions of sublimity depend mainly on natural endowments, whereas those which follow derive assistance from Art (sentence 4). What distinction is he making between natural endowments and Art? Do you agree? In paragraph B, sentence 6, Longinus distinguishes between the proper choice of words and the use of metaphors and other ornaments of diction. What distinction is he making? Why is it important? Why do you think Longinus extended definition of the sublime has remained in circulation for almost 2,000 years? Why is the idea of the sublime so important? What work have we read this year that you believe contains sublime passages? What makes that work or those passages sublime? (Refer to the text.) 3
Have participants take notes to brainstorm ideas that they heard, read, and thought during seminar related to the ideas under discussion, especially the ideas of definition and the sublime. After reading and discussing an excerpt from On the Sublime, write an essay in which you summarize Longinus definition of the sublime and explain how a specific passage from literature illustrates that definition. Support your discussion with evidence from the text. (Informational or Explanatory/Definition) (LDC Task#: 12 ) 4
Invite participants to talk in pairs for two minutes to share thoughts about what the writing task is asking. (NOTE: if necessary, provide a list of passages for students to choose from from works that the class has already read during the year. The important feature of this assignment is that students use Longinus definition to illuminate the passage and vice-versa.) Allow a few minutes for all to sketch an outline for their writing. Draft an outline for their writing and refine their thinking. Challenge all to draft their definition essays by listing key points about how a specific literary work illustrates the sublime. Refer to the text to illustrate the key points. Have participants work in pairs to read their first drafts aloud to each other with emphasis on reader as creator and editor. Listener says back one point heard clearly and asks one question for clarification. Switch roles. Give time for full revisions resulting in a second draft. Once the second draft is complete, have participants work in groups of three-four and this time take turns reading each other s second drafts slowly and silently, marking any spelling or grammar errors they find. (Have dictionaries and grammar handbooks available for reference.) Take this opportunity to clarify/reteach any specific grammar strategies you have identified your students needing. Give time for full revisions resulting in a third and final draft. Collect and print multiple copies of these essays for circulation both in the classroom and in the school library. Use them throughout the school year (and in future years) as models for defining literary terms through example. Ask students to refer back to this collection when writing about literary terms in future journal entries as well as more formal writing. 5
Terry Roberts National Paideia Center 6
From On the Sublime Longinus I As I am addressing a person so accomplished in literature, I need only state, without enlarging further on the matter, that the Sublime, wherever it occurs, consists in a certain loftiness and excellence of language, and that it is by this, and this only, that the greatest poets and prose-writers have gained eminence, and won themselves a lasting place in the Temple of Fame. A lofty passage does not convince the reason of the reader, but takes him out of himself. That which is admirable ever confounds our judgment, and eclipses that which is merely reasonable or agreeable. To believe or not is usually in our own power; but the Sublime, acting with an imperious and irresistible force, sways every reader whether he will or not. Skill in invention, lucid arrangement and disposition of facts, are appreciated not by one passage, or by two, but gradually manifest themselves in the general structure of a work; but a sublime thought, if happily timed, illumines an entire subject with the vividness of a lightning-flash, and exhibits the whole power of the orator in a moment of time. VIII I shall now proceed to enumerate the five principal sources, as we may call them, from which almost all sublimity is derived, assuming, of course, the preliminary gift on which all these five sources depend, namely a command of language. The first and the most important is (1) grandeur of thought, as I have pointed out elsewhere. The second is (2) a vigorous and spirited treatment of the passions. These two conditions of sublimity depend mainly on natural endowments, whereas those which follow derive assistance from Art. The third is (3) a certain artifice in the employment of figures, which are of two kinds, figures of thought and figures of speech. The fourth is (4) dignified expression, which is sub-divided into (a) the proper choice of words, and (b) the use of metaphors and other ornaments of diction. The fifth cause of sublimity, which embraces all those preceding, is (5) majesty and elevation of structure. Translated by H. L. Havell in 1890 (Source - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17957 ) 7