Response 1: The Critical Necessary of Literary Studies (Draft 1)

Horace in “Art of Poetry” looks so supportive necessity of poetry through a variety of rhetorical words such as

“All mortal things shall perish; still less shall the currency and charm of words always endure. Many words that have lapsed in use will be reborn, and may now in high repute will die, if custom wills it, within whose power lie the judgement, rule, and standard of speech.” 

(in “Art of Poetry”, p. 80)

because of the arbitrary nature of language has words that can continue to grow and develop. However, Horace emphasizes

“Neither proper words nor lucid order will be lacking to the writer who chooses a subject within his powers.” (in “Art of Poetry”, p.79)

Starting seen that in writing too, there can be social inequalities because each person has the habit to write, but the writing that they make should be in accordance with their level / degree of social and experiences.

It seems intended to avoid mistakes that occur when a writer tries to avoid monotony in his work in a manner that does not insert his usual part, or by inserting the section is completely foreign to him (possibly just by inserting his story, or experimenting with an experience that he himself had never experienced it). When something like that happens, there is the possibility of emotion as well as information about the things that he wanted to convey to his audience could not be delivered because the audience failed or was misrepresented so that the emotions were not as it should be.

It is also common to the mimetic. Many writers are forced to imitate a figure, but ultimately failed when the audience realizes that what it was being done only ‘imitate the real action.’ The point of urbanity is “…the ideal of poetic style is to mould familiar material with such skill that anyone might hope to achieve the same feat” in “Art of Poetry”, p.82)

When orthodoxy codifies unorthodox, just as in Schole’s English Apparatus, unorthodox may become worse when new information or new events require adaptation and adjustment. As a result, the letters are mostly located in the stronghold of unorthodox undergoing some sort of clash due to their initial belief that suddenly affected by the codes of the orthodox. This will further problematize our understanding of the place of literature in everyday socio-cultural activities.

Especially, if orthodoxy can codify unorthodoxy as in the following quote

“Orthodoxy replies by codifying an orthodox behavior, setting  aside times and places for approved Saturnalias, designating certain attire as the jester’s special clothing, and telling poets they have a “license” to be odd” (in “The English Apparatus”, p.2)

I thought the point of “telling poets they have a" license "to be odd" is a threat or at least a warning that with the influence of the Orthodox in this manner does not remove the creativity of poets but thus blurring the creativity itself.

One of the aspects that could be affected is the genre. As an element that formed from the composition of the various codes, genres must be able to unite the diverse similar code into a masterpiece. This will be difficult if the codes are popping up in a work/writing is a mixture of two camps-orthodox and unorthodox.

On the one hand, the unorthodox want codes are retained, but on the other hand, the orthodox also sets its own codification on the same paper Finally, both codes will eventually bump into and out of sync so that when “Orthodoxy replies by codifying an orthodox behavior, setting  aside times and places for approved Saturnalias, designating certain attire as the jester’s special clothing, and telling poets they have a “license” to be odd” (in “The English Apparatus”, p.1-2) means that it might further problematize our understanding of the place of literature in everyday socio-cultural activities.

Through some comparison between the literature of various sciences such as mathematics, psychology, biology and physics, I often see Frye defend literature or Linguistics in “The Function of Criticism in Our Present Time” because as one of the fields of science, literature has a trait that is not absolute as an exact science. Linguistics or literature in this regard is very likely to be included in the critical review. However, that's what so troubled Indonesian in our contemporary social and economic discourse.

In Indonesia, apparently questioning, argumentative, and/or denied a variety of general theory which is already rooted in society and is believed to be the right is a statement that could be considered taboo and not allowed to criticize such a theory publicly. This is a problem because if everyone who studies the cultural studies can criticize various writing/opinion/theory using a variety of reference then the results will be considered subjective.

The arbitrary nature of language, too, which then makes the English studies and cultural/literary studies in Indonesia became more complicated, as stated by Scholes

“The reason for this is that research is ancillary to criticism, but the critic to whom the researcher should entrust his materials hardly exist” (in The English Apparatus, p.39)

Meanwhile, in "The Resistance to Theory", De Man explained about the truth (warnheit) that can be used as a tool for pursing warheit became a foregone conclusion. But, as in the excerpt

“The local manifestations of this resistance are themselves systematic enough to warrant one’s interest” (in “The Resistance to Theory”, p.1320)

During the convergence process is very likely to arise Warheit resistance to theory, if it's not in line with the method. When this happens, resistance to theory could arise due to a variety of arguments and references used to warrant one's interest, pointing out things like the following

“It upsets roots ideologies by revealing the mechanics of their workings; it goes against a powerful philosophical tradition of which aesthetics is the most prominent part; it upsets the established canon of literary works and blurs the borderlines between literary and non-literary discourse.” (in “The Resistance to Theory”, p.1322)

On the other hand, Schole in “The English Apparatus” seemed to support the resistance of theory through this citation: “In an age of manipulation, when our students are in dire need of critical strength to resist the continuing assaults of all the media, the worst thing we can do is to foster in them an attitude of reverence before texts” (in “The English Apparatus”, p.16)

the rest of the reverential attitude, Scholes found that:

“…what is needed is a judicious attitude: scrupulous to understand, alert to probe for blind spots and hidden agendas, and, finally, critical, questioning, skeptical.” (in “The English Apparatus”, p.16)

Thus, I conclude that literary studies, have an important role in our society as a human being, considering we are all inseparable from literary studies and language proficiency becomes important because it includes not only linguistic but also can sharpen our logic, teach us to be skeptical, and prevent the habit of "taking for grantedness". Literary studies can also increase our sensitivity to the conditions surrounding and among other societies.

Work Cited

Arnold, Matthew. 2004.“The Function of Criticism in Our Present Time” in Critical Theory Since Plato, Wordsworth

De Man, Paul. 1986. “The Resistance to Theory” in Theory and History of Literature, Volume 33. Minneapolis, United States: University of Minnesota Press.

Horace. “Art of Poetry”. 2004. in Adams, Hazard and Searle, Leroy. Critical Theory since Plato (3rd edition). United States: Wadsworth Publishing.          

Scholes, Robert. 1986. “The English Apparatus” in Textual Power. Yale, United States: Yale University Press.