The Sublime Reader

This is the first English-language anthology to provide a compendium of primary source material on the sublime. The book takes a chronological approach, covering the earliest ancient traditions up through the early and late modern periods and into contemporary theory. It takes an inclusive, interdisciplinary approach to this key concept in aesthetics and criticism, representing voices and traditions that have often been excluded. As such, it will be of use and interest across the humanities and allied disciplines, from art criticism and literary theory, to gender and cultural studies and environmental philosophy. The anthology includes brief introductions to each selection, reading or discussion questions, suggestions for further reading, a bibliography and index – making it an ideal text for building a course around or for further study. The book’s apparatus provides valuable context for exploring the history and contemporary views of the sublime.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments: Sources Acknowledgments Note on the Texts Editor’s Introduction Part I. Ancient 1.Longinus, from On Sublimity 2.Bharata-Muni, from Na?yasastra Part II. Postclassical 3.Guo Xi, from The Interest of Lofty Forests and Springs 4.Zeami Motokiyo, “Notes on the Nine Levels” 5.Francesco Petrarca, “The Ascent of Mont Ventoux” Part III. Modern 6.Nicolas Boileau Despréaux, from “Preface to his Translation of Longinus On the Sublime” 7.John Dennis, from The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry 8.Giambattista Vico, “On the Heroic Mind” 9.Edmund Burke, from A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful 10.Moses Mendelssohn, from “On the Sublime and Naive in the Fine Sciences” 11.Elizabeth Carter, from Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu 12.Immanuel Kant, from Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime 13.Anna Aiken (Anna Letitia Barbauld), “On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror” 14.Mary Wollstonecraft, from A Vindication of the Rights of Men 15.Immanuel Kant, from Critique of the Power of Judgment and Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View 16.Friedrich Schiller, “Of the Sublime (Toward the Further Development of Some Kantian Ideas)” 17.Anna Seward, Letter to Rev. Dr. Gregory 18.Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolfo: A Romance 19.Helen Maria Williams, from A Tour in Switzerland Part IV. Late Modern 20.William Wordsworth, “The Sublime and the Beautiful” 21.Mary Shelley, from Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus 22.Arthur Schopenhauer, from The World as Will and Representation 23.Georg W. F. Hegel, “Symbolism of the Sublime” 24.Richard Wagner, from “Beethoven” 25.Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Birth of Tragedy, Joyful Wisdom, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra 26.Rudolf Otto, from The Idea of the Holy Part V. Contemporary 27.Barnett Newman, “The Sublime is Now” 28.Julia Kristeva, from Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection 29.Fredric Jameson, from “Postmodernism, or the Logic of Late Capitalism” 30.Jean-François Lyotard, “The Sublime and the Avant-Garde” 31.Meg Armstrong, from “‘The Effects of Blackness’: Gender, Race, and the Sublime in Aesthetic Theories of Burke and Kant” 32.Cynthia A. Freeland, “The Sublime in Cinema” 33.Arthur Danto, “Beauty and Sublimity” 34.Vladimir J. Konecni, “The Aesthetic Trinity: Awe, Being Moved, Thrills” 35.Jane Forsey, “Is a Theory of the Sublime Possible?” 36.Sandra Shapshay, “Commentary on Jane Forsey’s ‘Is a Theory of the Sublime Possible?’” 37.Robert R. Clewis, “Towards A Theory of the Sublime and Aesthetic Awe” 38.Emily Brady, “The Environmental Sublime” Chapter Summaries Bibliography Index Illustrations 1.Guo Xi, Early Spring, 1072 2.Barnett Newman, Onement I, 1948 3.Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950-1951 4.Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, c. 1817

About the Author :
Robert R. Clewis is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Honors Program at Gwynedd Mercy University, USA and is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. He is author of The Kantian Sublime and the Revelation of Freedom (2009), a translator of Kant’s Lectures on Anthropology (2012), and editor of Reading Kant’s Lectures (2015).

Review :
Robert Clewis has done heroic work in collecting the full range of important materials about the sublime from philosophy, art history, poetry, and criticism and in ably introducing them. This collection makes it possible for the first time to think systematically about special experiences of excitation, threat, and accession to power in a time when, for better and for worse, disruption looms large in many cultural and political agendas. The Sublime Reader is a much needed first comprehensive anthology dedicated to the aesthetic sublime. The texts are masterfully selected with a view to covering a long history, from ancient to contemporary works in Western and Eastern aesthetic traditions, and to presenting a wide range of accounts of the experience and judgment of natural and artistic sublimity. This is an invaluable resource for students, instructors, the general audience seeking depth and breadth in the fascinating subject of the sublime. The Sublime Reader fills a long-standing gap in the available resources for teaching and thinking about aesthetics. It is the first collection of extracts that sets ancient treatments of beauty, awe or wonder into dialogue with the more familiar eighteenth-century European discussion of the sublime and our own contemporary debates about the effects and value of aesthetic form and objects. This collection will expand the field as its deft and thoughtful juxtapositions stimulate further explorations in our understanding of what it means to be struck by wonder. The Sublime Reader is a unique collection of readings from the entire breadth of historical and contemporary philosophical traditions on one of the most exciting topics in aesthetics. It is also unique in its coverage of contributions by writers from literature and the arts. The editor's clear introductions and stimulating study questions make this an ideal teaching tool. This book could be the text for an entire course in aesthetics or an invaluable resource for other courses in the field. The Sublime Reader is a much-needed compendium of both classic and underappreciated texts that, together, depict the origins and genealogy of this compelling idea. Robert Clewis has spent many years thinking and writing about the sublime, and this thoughtful and inclusive selection of cross-disciplinary primary materials is the best I’ve seen.