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THE
FUNCTION OF LITERATURE (ESSAY)
Ø
Diverse
opinion about its function:
Our
age sees different critics holding diverse opinions regarding 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 regarding the main function of literature is to entertain the readers, or, in other words, to
give them pleasure. Longinus was the primary critic to get down his thesis that
loftiness or sublimity in literature has its end-ecstasy, transport, "lifting
out of oneself." the worth of a piece of literature are often
assessed, consistent with Longinus, by introspection on the part of the
reader or hearer if he's overexcited, transported, moved to ecstasy by the
splendour "and passion of the work, then the work is sweet. The Greek the word which it's become traditional to translate as sublime in English means
literally height of elevation, and Longinus, in his essay On sublimity, refers
to those qualities during a work of literature which instantaneously create
within the reader a way of being carried to new heights of passionate
experience; sublimity is that the greatest of all literary virtues, the one
which makes a work, whatever its minor defects, truly impressive. A definitive the capacity of writing, and its definitive support, is to be grand and to possess
on its readers the effect of ecstasy or transport that sublimity has. The
brilliant impact of writing, for Longinus, is accomplished not by contention,
however by disclosure or brightness.