Two Inspirations by Sainte-Beuve and Tolstoy: Art and Canon

Art and the classics serve us individually and collectively since they provide kinder and deeper feelings that help us form accurate and ethical concerns. Art and canon are soft powers that affect minds and attitudes. They influence change, help form new perceptions and lead as to discover new horizons. The literary canon helps us to understand the social structures of a nation and its literary tradition. This article focusus on these two terms and explores their potential impact on people’s lives in the light of the ideas of literary figures concerning classics and art. The critics in question the French humanist Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve and the Russian author Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy are both influential figures of their periods and representatives of their countries. This paper aims to examine the notion of literary canon using a comparative approach. Two important essays, in relation to the literary canon, Saint-Beuve’s well-known work “What is a classic?” and Leo Tolstoy’s “What is Art?” display the ideological considerations in the evaluation and evolution of the works of art. The methodology involves textual analysis of the two different cultural works and their spiritual relationship and influences. Both studies focus on real-life tradition while finding keys in canon formation and they become examples of the universality of what they describe. As a result of the analysis, from antiquity till the present, canon is practical because it serves as a guide to people in choosing those works which can contribute to building fruitful lives. Canon also has an essential role in reflecting a wide range of cultural, ideological, and religious aspects of a society.

Sainte-Beuve ve Tolstoy’dan İki Esin Kaynağı: Sanat ve Kanon

Sanat ve klasikler, doğru ve etik kaygılar oluşturmamıza yardımcı olmak için daha hassas ve derin duygular sunarak bizlere hem bireysel hem de toplu olarak hizmet ederler. Sanat ve kanon, zihinleri ve tutumları etkileyen hassas güçlerdir. Bu güçler değişiklikleri etkiler ve yeni ufuklar keşfederken bizlere öncülük ederler. Onların sayesinde yeni algılar oluşturulur. Edebiyat kanonu, bir ulusun sosyal yapısını ve edebi geleneğini anlamamıza yardımcı olur. Bu makale, bu iki terimin insanlık tarihinin nasıl birer parçası olduklarına odaklanır ve klasikler ile birlikte sanatla ilgili usta edebi figürlerin fikirleri ışığında insanların yaşamları üzerindeki potansiyel etkilerini araştırır. Dönemlerinin ve ülkelerinin etkili figürleri olan söz konusu eleştirmenler, Fransız hümanist Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve ve Rus edebiyat yazarı Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy’dur. Bu makale, karşılaştırmalı bir yaklaşım kullanarak edebi kanon kavramını incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Edebi kanon ile ilgili olan Saint-Beuve’nin tanınmış eseri “Klasik nedir?” ve Leo Tolstoy’un “Sanat Nedir?” adlı makaleleri sanat eserlerinin değerlendirilme ve evrim sürecindeki ideolojik düşünceleri sergiler. Metodoloji, iki farklı kültürel eserin ve bunların manevi ilişkilerinin ve etkilerinin metinsel analizini içerir. Her iki çalışma da kanon oluşumundaki anahtarları bulurken gerçek yaşam geleneğine odaklanır ve tanımladıkları şeyin evrenselliğinin örnekleri olurlar. Sonuç olarak, Antik çağdan günümüze, kanon pratiktir çünkü insanlara verimli hayatlar inşa etmeye katkıda bulunabilecek eserleri seçmede rehberlik eder. Kanon ayrıca bir toplumun çok çeşitli kültürel, ideolojik ve dini yönlerini yansıtmada önemli bir role sahiptir.

PDF

___

Bloom, H. (1994). The western canon. The books and school of the ages. Harcourt Brace & Company.

Chaloemtiarana, T. (2009). Making new space in the Thai literary canon. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 40 (01), 87-110.

Compagnon, A. (1995). Sainte-Beuve and the canon. MLN, 110 (5), 1188-1199.

Delbanco, A. (1997). Required reading: Why our American classics matter now. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Eagleton, T. (2008). Literary theory: An introduction. Blackwell Publishing.

Eckermann, J.P. (1964). Conversations with Goethe (O’Brien G.C, Trans.). New Yorks Frederick Ungar Publishing. (Original work published 1836).

Eliot, T.S. (1944). What is a classic?. Faber & Faber.

Eliot, T. S. (2011). The waste land and other poems. Broadview Press.

Heinzkill, R. (1990). The literary canon and collection building. Collection Management, 13 (1-2). 51-64.

Hardison, Jr, O.B. (1962). Modern continental literary criticism. Meredith Publishing.

Heidegger, M. (2002). Heidegger: Off the beaten track. Cambridge University Press.

Joyce, J. A. (1987). The black canon: Reconstructing black American literary criticism. New Literary History, 18 (2), 335-344.

Juvan, M. (2004). Literary self-referentiality and the formation of the national literary canon. Neohelicon, 31 (1), 113-123.

Kaltenbrunner, W. (2010). Literary positivism? Scientific theories and methods in the work of

Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869) and Wilhelm Scherer (1841-1886). Stadium, (3), 74-88.

Kolbas, D. (2001). Critical theory and the literary canon. Westview Press.

Ning, W. (2004). Canon formation, or literary revisionism. Neohelicon, 31 (2), 159-174.

Pollock, G. (1999) Differencing the canon feminist desire and the writing of art’s histories. Routledge.

Price, K.M. (2009). Digital scholarship, economics, and the american literary canon. Literature Compass, 6 (2), 274-290.

Redfearn, D. (1992) Tolstoy principles for a new world order. Shepheard – Walwyn London.

Rusch, G. (1999). The status of authors within literary systems: challenging the canon. An explorative investigation of Alfred Döblin’s status within the German literary system in 1997. Poetics, 26 (5-6), 367-384.

Sainte-Beuve (2008). Essays by Sainte-Beuve. London: "Walter Scott, Ltd. https://archive.org/details/essaysbysaintebe00sain/page/n9/mode/2up

Simmons, E. J. (1946). Leo Tolstoy. John Lehmann.

Taine, H. (1871). History of english literature (Van Laun, H, Trans.). Holt &Williams. (Original work published 1863).

Terry, R. (2001). Poetry and the making of english literary past 1660- 1781. Oxford.

Tolstoy, L. (1995). What is art? (Pevear, R. & Volokhonsky, L, Trans.). Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1897).

Williams, R. (1977) Marxism and literature. Oxford University Press.

Turkish Studies - Language and Literature-Cover

ISSN: 2667-5641
Yayın Aralığı: Yılda 4 Sayı
Başlangıç: 2006
Yayıncı: ASOS Eğitim Bilişim Danışmanlık Otomasyon Yayıncılık Reklam Sanayi ve Ticaret LTD ŞTİ