Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 3. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 29)

Attila Debreceni: The Notion of the "Sublime" in Contemporary English, French and Hungarian Literary Criticism

THE NOTION OF THE "SUBLIME" 7 Emotionalist sublime (sublime par excellence) is called romantic in the range of interpretation. Neoclassicism, however, is characterized by the sublime (used in another sense), that is the word qualified becomes attributive, there being no other free place for it. It is used in basic monographs by Mario Praz and Hugh Honour as well.

2

2 Roland Mortier," Jacques Chouillet" and Binni Walter" equally reflect on the emotionalist and neoclassicist variants of the sublime emphasizing the close relations between them. György Mihály Vajda points out the parallels between these variants of the sublime too in a great essay written in French,"' which is the first element in analysing interpretations of the notion of the sublime in Hungarian literature. 4 Interpretations in Hungarian Literary History It is the approach mentioned above that is the most elaborated in the Hungarian literature, following the basic study of József Szauder."' The interpretation of the sublime included in the notion of neoclassicism, and the introduction of the emotional and perfectionist sublime as a complementary phenomenon become widely known primarily owing to Péter Sárközy and József Pál applying the results of Italian literary criticism, and mainly Walter Binni.

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S At the same time, their analyses highlight the 2

2 Mario Praz, Gusto neoclassico, Firenze, 1940 (in English: On Neoclassicism

, translated by Angus Davidson, London 1969); Hugh Honour, Neo-classicism, Penguin Books, 1968 (in Hungarian: Klasszicizmus, translated by Szabolcs Várady, Budapest, 1991). 2

3 "'Sensibilité,' 'Néo-classique' ou 'Préromantisme,'" in Le Préromantisme, Actes du Colloque de Clermont-Ferrand, Paris, 1975, 310-318. 2

4 Op. cit. 186—216; cf. Imre Vörös, "Neoklasszicizmus és forradalom — MarieJoseph Chénier munkásságának tükrében," (Neoclassicism and Revolution-in the ouvre of Marie-Joseph Chénier) in Folytonosság vagy fordulat? (Continuity or turningpoint?) ed. Attila Debreczeni, Debrecen, 1996,163-164. 2

5 Classicismo e neoclassicismo nella letteratura del Settecento, Firenze, 1963; cf. József Pál, A neoklasszicizmus poétikája, (The poetic of Neoclassicism) Budapest, 1988, 17-23 and Péter Sárközy, Petrarcától Ossziánig (From Petrarca to Ossian) Budapest, 1988, 100—124. 2

6 "La dimension esthétique de la poésie," in Le tournant du siecle des Lumiéres 1760— 1820, ed. György Mihály Vajda, Budapest, 1982,155-212. 2

7 "A klasszicizmus kérdései és a klasszicizmus a felvilágosodás magyar irodalmában," (The Problems of Classicism and the Classicism in the Hungarian Enlightenment Literature) in Az Estve és Az Alom, (The Evening and The Sleep) Budapest, 1970, 92-122. 2

8 See note 25.