The Functioned Poetry
Horace states a poet should "inform or delight" the spectators. It means, the poetry he or she delivers must be pleasurable, has a sense of enjoyment, and applicable, has a sense of practical use. He further argues that "fiction [ parallel with poetry] invented in order to please should remain close to reality", when we note the phrase in order to,we realize that the subject of the sentence need to have a benefit, whatever it is.
Later on, this benefit becomes important since it turns to
be a standard in defining a good and bad poetry. With the need of function
within itself, a judgment toward poetry can be done by measuring whether or not
the function is there. The value of this judgment depends on how a poetry can
leads its audiences into one being ; being acknowledged, delighted or maybe
both. The farer a poetry drives its spectators into delight or acknowledgment,
the more society value it. The more epiphany, open-mouthed people, and applaud,
the more it has a meaning in society. In brief, it can be infer that the more
poetry function for the society, the higher its position is.
Eventually, it is only
about of making a poetry fit to each and every spectators while Horace himself
confesses that it is hard. It will be quite problematic since the spectators will vary and there will be a
matter of minority/ majority or inferiority/superiority among themselves.
The Justification Of
Imitation
I like the way Horace puts forward the issue of
regeneration, or that is what I conclude, in literary works before he ever
mentions about mimesis or imitation. He emphasizes that the regeneration within
works has been “destined” the way “ forest changes it leaves. However, Horace
says, the death of the previous works that” have lapsed in use will be reborn”(my emphasis). I understand
reborn as the way works form a new thing out of left-over from the past. Its
process, more or less, will include the mechanism of imitation as well. It is a
good way to avoid defensive effect on literature.
In other way, Plato tries to justify this imitation. He is
fully aware that the imitation may
contains “ true lie: for the lie I words is only a kind of imitation.” He
states that this kind of imitation, in words, is benefit to bring about an
account beyond our understanding. Moreover he also argues that if one drops the
imitation on his or her poetry, then his/ her poetry “becomes a simple
narration” which is not a good sign. About how much the imitation goes will
affect on the style of the poetry. Even though at a certain level, Plato as
well as myself, still question about the problems of mimetic art; whether to be
allowed or not, what one need to do about it.
The Intruder of Conformity
and How Can It Still Have Any Benefits.
Resistance to literary theory flourishes as the question
about the validity in literature arises. Mainly, De Man says, “the resistance
to theory is a resistance to the use of language about language.” After all, De
Man puts an interesting idea about it. He argues that the literary theory,
which is “[reveal] the mechanism of [ideologies workings] upsets “the owner” of
them. He further states, “it upsets the established canon of literary works and
blurs the borderlines…” So to speak, this theory intrude the conformity built
by the long history of tradition and that is why it needs to be blocked
somehow. Nonetheless, he thinks it is not sufficient to accommodate the whole
issue on this “suspicion reason.”
Nevertheless, to answer the final question on how literary
studies be beneficial for society without abandones the fact about its
resistance, I am with De Man’s analogy; “to claim[ a problem beneath the
resistance to the theory] would be like rejecting anatomy because it has failed
to cure mortality”. Although Scholes argues about the benefit we gain when our
literary works that we studies is close to reality, or more classic one which
Aristotle or Plato argues about how a literature can build the elements of
society, people, what I can say is that literary study just needs to be there
and take its part on the society’s discourse whether to grow and to be grown or
to fall or to be fallen.
