EMAIL<\/a> | SYLLABUS<\/a> | POLICIES<\/a> | QUESTIONS<\/a> | PRESENTATIONS<\/a> | JOURNALS<\/a> | PAPER<\/a> | FINAL<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Assigned: Ars Poetica<\/em> (122-33 in Leitch, Vincent B. and William E. Cain, eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.<\/em> 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. ISBN 978-0-393-93292-8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. On pages 122-123, what advice does Horace offer \u201cyou writers\u201d? How would you contrast his advice, here and elsewhere in the letter, to post-romantic tenets about the individual poet and the creation of poetry — i.e. most particularly the emphasis on originality, individualism, and the centrality of emotion in art?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. On page 123 (\u201cFashion in Words\u201d), Horace compares the changes that a language undergoes with the changes that nature undergoes. What is the poet\u2019s role in shaping the language of an entire people? What might one infer from this analogy about the durability of culture itself? Can art, for Horace, embody universal and eternal values, or is that something we must not expect of it? Explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. On page 124 (\u201cEmotion and Character\u201d), Horace writes, \u201cIf you want me to cry, mourn first yourself.\u201d Does this sentence indicate an interest in language as an expressive vehicle, or does it mostly have to do with Horace\u2019s notions about imitation and decorum? Explain. (If you are presenting on this question, You might also want to consider Aristotle\u2019s remarks about poets on page 102.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. On pages 124-25 (\u201cChoice and Handling of Myth\u201d) How important is sticking with poetic tradition in the representation of one\u2019s characters, according to Horace? To what extent may a poet depart from earlier traditions, and what challenge does he or she face when trying something new?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. According to Horace on pages 125-26 (\u201cChoice and Handling of Myth\u201d), what is more important to a Roman audience than the poet\u2019s ability to convey raw individuality or emotional intensity? How are his remarks here important for their reflection on his central concern with \u201cdecorum,\u201d or artistic propriety?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. On pages 126-27 (\u201cSome Rules for Dramatists\u201d), what does Horace set forth as appropriate to show onstage during a tragedy, and what should instead be narrated rather than shown? Why? What are the proper functions of the dramatic chorus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. On pages 127-28 (\u201cDevelopment of Tragedy\u201d and \u201cSatyr-Plays\u201d), how does Horace discuss the development of tragedy and the changes that have occurred in musical accompaniment? What do his observations suggest about his view of drama\u2019s social value, its relation to the audience\u2019s manners and moral quality? Similarly, how does Horace view the connection between the Satyr play and the tragedy proper — what do his remarks here suggest about the artist\u2019s responsibility to the various Roman social classes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. On pages 128-29 (\u201cGreek Models,\u201d \u201cInventiveness of the Greeks in Drama,\u201d Inventiveness of the Romans\u201d), what contrasts does Horace make between Greek and Roman artists and art? He may appear to be casting his own people as pedestrian business-folk and builders, but is there more to his statements than that? Explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. On page 129 (\u201cThe Poet\u201d), what does Horace set forth as the \u201cstarting-point and source\u201d of good poetry? Do these remarks suggest anything about whether content is the first and most important thing to determine, or form should be considered first? How do you think Horace would respond if we asked him about the relationship between form and content? (131-33)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. On pages 130-31 (\u201cGreek and Roman Attitudes\u201d), what does Horace say is the best sort of poetry? Why should poetry both teach and delight, rather than just doing one or the other \u2013 how does Horace\u2019s rationale address the quality and variety of a Roman poet\u2019s audience? (Note: the usual formula is \u201cutile et dulce,\u201d useful and pleasant. The exact Latin in Horace\u2019s text is \u201cOmne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci, \/ lectorem delectando pariterque monendo\u2026\u201d lines 343-44. Translated idiomatically, \u201cA poet who delights even as he instructs carries the day with every reader\u201d )<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11. On page 130 (\u201cGreek and Roman Attitudes\u201d), Horace writes that \u201cPoetry is like painting\u201d — ut pictura poiesis.<\/em> Later Renaissance and Neoclassical critics made much of this statement, but what does it seem to mean here in Horace\u2019s verse letter? What sorts of \u201cmistakes\u201d are we likely to let pass for the sake of the overall effect? What image of the good critic and reader is Horace setting forth here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12. On pages 130-31 (\u201cGreek and Roman Attitudes\u201d), why, according to Horace, is the poet, unlike the lawyer, not allowed to be second-rate? How does the poet\u2019s social purpose differ from that of the lawyer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 13. On page 131 (\u201cPoetry and Its Social Uses and Value\u201d), what does Horace say were the first functions of poetry? Does he see much need to defend the arts against any detractors, or is it evident to him that art\u2019s value is beyond dispute?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14. On pages 131-32 (\u201cArt and Nature\u201d), what does Horace assert about the ultimate source of good poetry? Is it a matter of genius, of cultivating one\u2019s talents, or both? What are your own thoughts about this longstanding critical debate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15. On pages 131-32 (\u201cThe Mad Poet\u201d), Horace ends his verse essay as he began it, with grotesque references to madness. Why do you suppose he brackets his letter with such references? What notion of poetry is he dismissing or downplaying by means of his final reference? How does the \u201cmad poet\u201d image invoke the Horatian poet\u2019s worst fears about the reception of his work, about his public standing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 16. General Question: What were Plato and Aristotle interested in regarding art that Horace appears not to be interested in? How does his lack of interest here reflect a fundamental difference between the Greeks and the Romans? (general question)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17. General Question: Horace is an important figure for those interested in whether art shapes a given culture, or whether it merely or mainly reflects values already present in that culture. What do you think? Can\/should art transform people and make them see things in radically new ways, or does\/should it mostly reflect and validate (i.e. imitate or represent approvingly) what most people already think they know about morality, politics, and other broad areas of life? Or is the question too stark?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 18. General Question: Do you think that your own generation is more \u201cHoratian,\u201d i.e. conformist, than rebelliously \u201cRomantic,\u201d or is it the other way around? Explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 19. General Exercise: lay down the rules, the \u201cdecorum,\u201d of some popular art or cultural form today, offering your best justification for such rules and your best defense of the art or cultural form you have chosen to describe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HORACE QUESTIONS FOR E256 LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISMCHAPMAN UNIVERSITY, FALL 2012 Assigned: Ars Poetica (122-33 in Leitch, Vincent B. and William E. Cain, eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. ISBN 978-0-393-93292-8). Ars Poetica 1. On pages 122-123, what advice does Horace offer \u201cyou writers\u201d? 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