Presented by Prinjal Shiyal
Enrollment no. 2069108420190041.
Paper no. 7
Batch year, 2018- 2020.
Email ID. Prinjal00123@gmail.com
Submitted to ; Maharaja krishnakumarsinghji Bhavnagar university. (MKBU)
# I. A. Richard's view on the Language of poetry :-
I.A. Richards, born in 1893, is one of the great critics of the modern age, and has influenced a number of critics on both sides of the Atlantic. He and T.S. Eliot are pioneers in the field of New Criticism, though they differ from each other in certain important respects. He is the first-rate critic, since Coleridge, who has formulated a systematic and complete theory of poetry, and his views are highly original and illuminating. In his “Principles of Literary Criticism” chapter 34, he discusses the most neglected subject, i.e. the theory of language and the two uses of language. To understand much the theory of poetry and what is said about poetry, a clear comprehension of the differences between the uses of language is indispensable. David Daiches says, “Richards conducts this investigation in order to come to some clear conclusions about what imaginative literature is, how it employs language, how its use of language differs from the scientific use of language and what is its special function and value.”
* According to I.A. Richards language can be used in two ways, i.e. the scientific use and the emotive one.
It is only in recent years that serious attention is given to the language as a science. In the scientific use of language, we are usually matter of fact. All the activities covered by this use require undistorted references and absence of fiction.We may use a statement, true or false, in a scientific use of language, but it may also be used to create emotions and attitudes. This is the emotive use of language. We use words scientifically or for emotional attitudes when words are used to evoke attitudes without recourse to references like musical phrases. References are conditions for developing attitudes and hence the attitudes are more important, without carrying for the true or false references. Their sole purpose is to support the attitudes. Aristotle wisely said, “Better a plausible impossibility than an improbable possibility.”In the scientific use of the language, the difference in reference is fatal (a failure) but in the emotive language it is not so. In the scientific use of language, the references should be correct and the relation of references should be logical. In the emotive use of language, any truth or logical arrangement is not necessary – it may work as an obstacle. The attitudes due to references should have their emotional interconnection and this has often no connection with logical relations of the facts referred to.Richards goes on to examine different uses of the word ‘truth’. In the scientific use, the references are true and logical there is very little involvement of arts. Richards says that the term ‘true’ should be reserved for this type of uses – the scientific use. But the emotive power of the word is far too great for this. The temptations are there for a speaker who wants to evoke certain attitudes.Richards served as mentor and teacher to other prominent critics, most notably William Empson and F. R. Leavis, though Leavis was contemporary with Richards, Empson much younger. Other critics primarily influenced by his writings also included Cleanth Brooks and Allen Tate. Later critics who refined the formalist approach to New Criticism by actively rejecting his psychological emphasis included, besides Brooks and Tate, John Crowe Ransom, W. K. Wimsatt, R. P. Blackmur, and Murray Krieger. R. S. Crane of the Chicago school was both indebted to Richards's theory and critical of its psychological assumptions. They all admitted the value of his seminal ideas but sought to salvage what they considered his most useful assumptions from the theoretical excesses they felt he brought to bear in his criticism. Like Empson, Richards proved a difficult model for the New Critics, but his model of close reading provided the basis for their interpretive methodology.The objective of Practical Criticism was to encourage students to concentrate on ‘the words on the page’, rather than rely on preconceived or received beliefs about a text. Richards concludes that the critical reading of poetry is an arduous discipline. “The lesson of all criticism is that we have nothing to rely upon in making our choices but ourselves.” The lesson of good poetry, when we have understood it, lies in the degree to which we can order ourselves. Through close analysis of poems and by responding to the emotion and meaning in them the students were to achieve what Richards called an ‘organized response.’ From this stems Richard’s ‘psychologism’ which is concerned not with the poem per se but with the responses to it.
In The Principles of Literary Criticism (1924), Richards establishes the nature and value of poetry. According to him, the science that unearths the secrets of literature is psychology. He first examines the working of the human mind itself to find out a psychological theory of value. He describes the human mind as a system of ‘impulses’, which may be defined as ‘attitudes’ or reactions motivated in us by ‘stimuli’, that culminate in an act. These impulses are conflicting instincts and desires and wants—or ‘appetencies’ as Richards calls them, as opposed to ‘aversions’ — in the human mind. They pull in different directions and cause uneasiness to the human mind which looks to achieve order or poise through the satisfaction of appetencies. The mind experiences a state of poise only when these emotions organize to follow a common course. But with each new experience, the whole system is disturbed and the human mind has to readjust the impulses in a new way to achieve the desired system or poise. To achieve this poise, some impulses are satisfied and some give way to others and are frustrated. The ideal state will be when all the impulses are fully satisfied, but since this is rarely possible, the next best state is when the maximum number of impulses are satisfied and the minimum are frustrated.The value of art or poetry – and by poetry Richards means all imaginative literature – is that it enables the mind to achieve this poise or system more quickly and completely than it could do otherwise. In art there is a resolution and balancing of impulses. Poetry is a representation of this uniquely ordered state of mind in which the impulses respond to a stimulus in such a manner that the mind has a life’s experience. The poet records this happy play of impulses on a particular occasion, though much that goes into the making of a poem is unconsciously done. It is to partake of this experience that the true reader reads poetry. Good poetry arouses the same experience in the reader too. Thus, poetry becomes a means by which we can gain emotional balance, mental equilibrium, peace and rest. Poetry organizes our impulses and gives our mind a certain order, renders us happy and makes our minds healthy. What is true of the individual is also true of society. A society in which arts are freely cultivated exhibits better mental and emotional tranquillity than the societies in which arts are not valued. This moral value of art proceeds from the working of the human mind rather than from any ethical base. Art or poetry is valuable in that it integrates our activities, resolves our mental conflicts and tensions and leads us to a liberated state. Richards calls this harmonized state, this balancing of conflicting impulses “synaesthesis”. It is the simultaneous harmonious experience of diverse sensations and impulses resulting in a fusion of opposites or unification of differences. Synaesthesia is a condition in which one experiences equilibrium of harmonious elements. In the experience of synaesthesis, there is a sense of detachment that is conducive to the formation of a completely coordinated personality.
# Two Uses of Language:-
Richards views the poem as a response to a stimulus, which is located in the reader. But this subjectivism leads him to the conclusion that all poetic language is ambiguous, plurisignant, open to different meanings and so on. In this context, as David Daiches says, Richards investigates what imaginative literature is, how it employs language, how its use of language differs from the scientific use of language and what is its special function and value. Richards in his “Principles of Literary Criticism” expounded a theory of language, and distinguished between the two uses of language – the referential or scientific, and the emotive. A statement may be used for the sake of reference, which may be verified as true or false. This is the scientific use of language. But it may also be used for the sake of the effects in emotions and attitudes produced by the reference. This is the emotive or poetic use of language. The poet uses words emotively for the purpose of evoking emotions and attitudes considered valuable by him. For instance, the word ‘fire’ has only one definite scientific reference to a fact in the real world. But when poetry uses it in a phrase such as ‘heart on fire’ the word evokes an emotion – that of excitement. While science makes statements, poetry makes pseudo-statements that cannot be empirically tested and proved true or false. A statement is justified by its truth or its correspondence with the fact it points to. On the other hand, the pseudo statement of poetry is justified in its effect of releasing or organizing our impulses or attitudes. Richards says, “The statements in poetry are there as a means to manipulation and expression of feelings and attitudes.” Poetry communicates feelings and emotions. Hence, poetic truth is different from scientific truth. It is a matter of emotional belief rather than intellectual belief. Poetry cannot be expected to provide us with knowledge, nor is there any intellectual doctrine in poetry. Poetry speaks not to the mind but to the impulses. Its speech, literal or figurative, logical or illogical is faithful to its experience as long as it evokes a similar experience in the reader. Thus, a poem, as Richards defines it, is a class of experiences ‘composed of all experiences, occasioned by the words’ which are similar to ‘the original experience of the poet.’
*Four Kinds of Meaning:-
In Practical Criticism, The Meaning of Meaning and The Philosophy of Rhetoric, Richards advocates a close textual and verbal analysis of poetry. Language is made up of words and hence the study of words is of paramount importance in the understanding of a work of art. Words, according to Richards, communicate four kinds of meaning. Or, the total meaning of a word is a combination of four contributory aspects —Sense, Feeling, Tone, and Intention. Poetry communicates through the interplay of these four types of meanings.
Sense is that which is communicated by the plain literal meanings of the words. When the writer makes an utterance, he directs his hearers’ attention upon some state of affairs, some items for their thought and consideration. Feeling refers to the feelings of the writer or speaker about these items, about the state of affairs he is referring to. He has an attitude towards it, some special bias, or interest, some personal flavour or colouring of it, and he uses language to express these feelings. In poetry, sense and feeling have a mutual dependence. “The sound of a word has much to do with the feeling it evokes.” Tone means the attitude of the writer towards his readers. The writer or the speaker chooses and arranges the words differently as his audience varies, depending on his relation to them. Besides these, the speaker’s intention or aim, conscious or unconscious, should also be taken into account. Intention refers to the effect one tries to produce, which modifies one’s expression. It controls the emphasis and shapes the arrangement. ‘It may govern the stress laid upon points in an argument. It controls the ‘plot’ in the larger sense of the word.’ The understanding of all these aspects is part of the whole business of apprehending the meaning of poetry.Generally sense predominates in the scientific language and feeling in the poetic language. The figurative language used by poets conveys emotions effectively and forcefully. Words also acquire a rich associative value in different contexts. The meaning of words is also determined by rhythm and metre. Just as the eye reading print unconsciously expects the spelling to be as usual, the mind after reading a line or two of verse begins to anticipate the flow of poetry. This anticipation becomes precise when there is regularity of sound created through rhythm and miter.
Conclusion :-
For the purpose of communication, the use of metaphoric language is all important. “A metaphor is a shift, a carrying over of a word from its normal use to a new use”. Metaphors may be of two kinds : (I) sense-metaphors, and (2) emotive-metaphors. In a sense-metaphor the shift is due to a similarity between the original object and the new one. In an emotive metaphor the shift is due to a similarity between the feelings the new situation and the normal situation arouse. The same word in different contexts may be a sense-metaphor or an emotive one. Metaphor, says Richards, is a method by which the writer can crowd into the poem much more than would be possible otherwise. The metaphorical meaning arises from the inter-relations of sense, tone, feeling and intention. “A metaphor is a point at which many different influences may cross or unite. Hence its dangers in prose discussions and its treacherousness for careless readers of poetry, but hence, at the same time, its peculiar quasi-magical sway in the hands of a master.” In poetry, I.A. Richards sums up, statements turn out to be the indirect expressions of Feeling, Tone and Intention.To sum up in the words of George Watson, “Richards is simply the most influential theorist of the century, as Eliot is the most influential of descriptive critics.” Richards’ claim to have pioneered Anglo- American New Criticism of the thirties and forties is unassailable. He provided the theoretical foundations on which the technique of verbal analysis was built. He turned criticism into a science, and considered knowledge of psychology necessary for literary criticism.
Enrollment no. 2069108420190041.
Paper no. 7
Batch year, 2018- 2020.
Email ID. Prinjal00123@gmail.com
Submitted to ; Maharaja krishnakumarsinghji Bhavnagar university. (MKBU)
# I. A. Richard's view on the Language of poetry :-
I.A. Richards, born in 1893, is one of the great critics of the modern age, and has influenced a number of critics on both sides of the Atlantic. He and T.S. Eliot are pioneers in the field of New Criticism, though they differ from each other in certain important respects. He is the first-rate critic, since Coleridge, who has formulated a systematic and complete theory of poetry, and his views are highly original and illuminating. In his “Principles of Literary Criticism” chapter 34, he discusses the most neglected subject, i.e. the theory of language and the two uses of language. To understand much the theory of poetry and what is said about poetry, a clear comprehension of the differences between the uses of language is indispensable. David Daiches says, “Richards conducts this investigation in order to come to some clear conclusions about what imaginative literature is, how it employs language, how its use of language differs from the scientific use of language and what is its special function and value.”
* According to I.A. Richards language can be used in two ways, i.e. the scientific use and the emotive one.
It is only in recent years that serious attention is given to the language as a science. In the scientific use of language, we are usually matter of fact. All the activities covered by this use require undistorted references and absence of fiction.We may use a statement, true or false, in a scientific use of language, but it may also be used to create emotions and attitudes. This is the emotive use of language. We use words scientifically or for emotional attitudes when words are used to evoke attitudes without recourse to references like musical phrases. References are conditions for developing attitudes and hence the attitudes are more important, without carrying for the true or false references. Their sole purpose is to support the attitudes. Aristotle wisely said, “Better a plausible impossibility than an improbable possibility.”In the scientific use of the language, the difference in reference is fatal (a failure) but in the emotive language it is not so. In the scientific use of language, the references should be correct and the relation of references should be logical. In the emotive use of language, any truth or logical arrangement is not necessary – it may work as an obstacle. The attitudes due to references should have their emotional interconnection and this has often no connection with logical relations of the facts referred to.Richards goes on to examine different uses of the word ‘truth’. In the scientific use, the references are true and logical there is very little involvement of arts. Richards says that the term ‘true’ should be reserved for this type of uses – the scientific use. But the emotive power of the word is far too great for this. The temptations are there for a speaker who wants to evoke certain attitudes.Richards served as mentor and teacher to other prominent critics, most notably William Empson and F. R. Leavis, though Leavis was contemporary with Richards, Empson much younger. Other critics primarily influenced by his writings also included Cleanth Brooks and Allen Tate. Later critics who refined the formalist approach to New Criticism by actively rejecting his psychological emphasis included, besides Brooks and Tate, John Crowe Ransom, W. K. Wimsatt, R. P. Blackmur, and Murray Krieger. R. S. Crane of the Chicago school was both indebted to Richards's theory and critical of its psychological assumptions. They all admitted the value of his seminal ideas but sought to salvage what they considered his most useful assumptions from the theoretical excesses they felt he brought to bear in his criticism. Like Empson, Richards proved a difficult model for the New Critics, but his model of close reading provided the basis for their interpretive methodology.The objective of Practical Criticism was to encourage students to concentrate on ‘the words on the page’, rather than rely on preconceived or received beliefs about a text. Richards concludes that the critical reading of poetry is an arduous discipline. “The lesson of all criticism is that we have nothing to rely upon in making our choices but ourselves.” The lesson of good poetry, when we have understood it, lies in the degree to which we can order ourselves. Through close analysis of poems and by responding to the emotion and meaning in them the students were to achieve what Richards called an ‘organized response.’ From this stems Richard’s ‘psychologism’ which is concerned not with the poem per se but with the responses to it.
In The Principles of Literary Criticism (1924), Richards establishes the nature and value of poetry. According to him, the science that unearths the secrets of literature is psychology. He first examines the working of the human mind itself to find out a psychological theory of value. He describes the human mind as a system of ‘impulses’, which may be defined as ‘attitudes’ or reactions motivated in us by ‘stimuli’, that culminate in an act. These impulses are conflicting instincts and desires and wants—or ‘appetencies’ as Richards calls them, as opposed to ‘aversions’ — in the human mind. They pull in different directions and cause uneasiness to the human mind which looks to achieve order or poise through the satisfaction of appetencies. The mind experiences a state of poise only when these emotions organize to follow a common course. But with each new experience, the whole system is disturbed and the human mind has to readjust the impulses in a new way to achieve the desired system or poise. To achieve this poise, some impulses are satisfied and some give way to others and are frustrated. The ideal state will be when all the impulses are fully satisfied, but since this is rarely possible, the next best state is when the maximum number of impulses are satisfied and the minimum are frustrated.The value of art or poetry – and by poetry Richards means all imaginative literature – is that it enables the mind to achieve this poise or system more quickly and completely than it could do otherwise. In art there is a resolution and balancing of impulses. Poetry is a representation of this uniquely ordered state of mind in which the impulses respond to a stimulus in such a manner that the mind has a life’s experience. The poet records this happy play of impulses on a particular occasion, though much that goes into the making of a poem is unconsciously done. It is to partake of this experience that the true reader reads poetry. Good poetry arouses the same experience in the reader too. Thus, poetry becomes a means by which we can gain emotional balance, mental equilibrium, peace and rest. Poetry organizes our impulses and gives our mind a certain order, renders us happy and makes our minds healthy. What is true of the individual is also true of society. A society in which arts are freely cultivated exhibits better mental and emotional tranquillity than the societies in which arts are not valued. This moral value of art proceeds from the working of the human mind rather than from any ethical base. Art or poetry is valuable in that it integrates our activities, resolves our mental conflicts and tensions and leads us to a liberated state. Richards calls this harmonized state, this balancing of conflicting impulses “synaesthesis”. It is the simultaneous harmonious experience of diverse sensations and impulses resulting in a fusion of opposites or unification of differences. Synaesthesia is a condition in which one experiences equilibrium of harmonious elements. In the experience of synaesthesis, there is a sense of detachment that is conducive to the formation of a completely coordinated personality.
# Two Uses of Language:-
Richards views the poem as a response to a stimulus, which is located in the reader. But this subjectivism leads him to the conclusion that all poetic language is ambiguous, plurisignant, open to different meanings and so on. In this context, as David Daiches says, Richards investigates what imaginative literature is, how it employs language, how its use of language differs from the scientific use of language and what is its special function and value. Richards in his “Principles of Literary Criticism” expounded a theory of language, and distinguished between the two uses of language – the referential or scientific, and the emotive. A statement may be used for the sake of reference, which may be verified as true or false. This is the scientific use of language. But it may also be used for the sake of the effects in emotions and attitudes produced by the reference. This is the emotive or poetic use of language. The poet uses words emotively for the purpose of evoking emotions and attitudes considered valuable by him. For instance, the word ‘fire’ has only one definite scientific reference to a fact in the real world. But when poetry uses it in a phrase such as ‘heart on fire’ the word evokes an emotion – that of excitement. While science makes statements, poetry makes pseudo-statements that cannot be empirically tested and proved true or false. A statement is justified by its truth or its correspondence with the fact it points to. On the other hand, the pseudo statement of poetry is justified in its effect of releasing or organizing our impulses or attitudes. Richards says, “The statements in poetry are there as a means to manipulation and expression of feelings and attitudes.” Poetry communicates feelings and emotions. Hence, poetic truth is different from scientific truth. It is a matter of emotional belief rather than intellectual belief. Poetry cannot be expected to provide us with knowledge, nor is there any intellectual doctrine in poetry. Poetry speaks not to the mind but to the impulses. Its speech, literal or figurative, logical or illogical is faithful to its experience as long as it evokes a similar experience in the reader. Thus, a poem, as Richards defines it, is a class of experiences ‘composed of all experiences, occasioned by the words’ which are similar to ‘the original experience of the poet.’
*Four Kinds of Meaning:-
In Practical Criticism, The Meaning of Meaning and The Philosophy of Rhetoric, Richards advocates a close textual and verbal analysis of poetry. Language is made up of words and hence the study of words is of paramount importance in the understanding of a work of art. Words, according to Richards, communicate four kinds of meaning. Or, the total meaning of a word is a combination of four contributory aspects —Sense, Feeling, Tone, and Intention. Poetry communicates through the interplay of these four types of meanings.
Sense is that which is communicated by the plain literal meanings of the words. When the writer makes an utterance, he directs his hearers’ attention upon some state of affairs, some items for their thought and consideration. Feeling refers to the feelings of the writer or speaker about these items, about the state of affairs he is referring to. He has an attitude towards it, some special bias, or interest, some personal flavour or colouring of it, and he uses language to express these feelings. In poetry, sense and feeling have a mutual dependence. “The sound of a word has much to do with the feeling it evokes.” Tone means the attitude of the writer towards his readers. The writer or the speaker chooses and arranges the words differently as his audience varies, depending on his relation to them. Besides these, the speaker’s intention or aim, conscious or unconscious, should also be taken into account. Intention refers to the effect one tries to produce, which modifies one’s expression. It controls the emphasis and shapes the arrangement. ‘It may govern the stress laid upon points in an argument. It controls the ‘plot’ in the larger sense of the word.’ The understanding of all these aspects is part of the whole business of apprehending the meaning of poetry.Generally sense predominates in the scientific language and feeling in the poetic language. The figurative language used by poets conveys emotions effectively and forcefully. Words also acquire a rich associative value in different contexts. The meaning of words is also determined by rhythm and metre. Just as the eye reading print unconsciously expects the spelling to be as usual, the mind after reading a line or two of verse begins to anticipate the flow of poetry. This anticipation becomes precise when there is regularity of sound created through rhythm and miter.
Conclusion :-
For the purpose of communication, the use of metaphoric language is all important. “A metaphor is a shift, a carrying over of a word from its normal use to a new use”. Metaphors may be of two kinds : (I) sense-metaphors, and (2) emotive-metaphors. In a sense-metaphor the shift is due to a similarity between the original object and the new one. In an emotive metaphor the shift is due to a similarity between the feelings the new situation and the normal situation arouse. The same word in different contexts may be a sense-metaphor or an emotive one. Metaphor, says Richards, is a method by which the writer can crowd into the poem much more than would be possible otherwise. The metaphorical meaning arises from the inter-relations of sense, tone, feeling and intention. “A metaphor is a point at which many different influences may cross or unite. Hence its dangers in prose discussions and its treacherousness for careless readers of poetry, but hence, at the same time, its peculiar quasi-magical sway in the hands of a master.” In poetry, I.A. Richards sums up, statements turn out to be the indirect expressions of Feeling, Tone and Intention.To sum up in the words of George Watson, “Richards is simply the most influential theorist of the century, as Eliot is the most influential of descriptive critics.” Richards’ claim to have pioneered Anglo- American New Criticism of the thirties and forties is unassailable. He provided the theoretical foundations on which the technique of verbal analysis was built. He turned criticism into a science, and considered knowledge of psychology necessary for literary criticism.
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