论文：A Survey of Sublime.docVIP

论文：A Survey of Sublimeabstract:this article discusses different sorts of sublime, its general traits, the appreciation of it and its source with plenty of excerpts, trying to give a bird view of the famous aesthetic category.key words: sublime；different sorts；traits； appreciation；sourcesublime, as an aesthetic category, is first put forth by longinus in his treatise on the sublime. according to longinus, sublimity “is a certain distinction and excellence in expression, and is from no other source than this that the greatest poets and writers have derived their eminence and gained an immortality of renown”1. “sublimity flashing forth at the right moment scatters everything before it like a thunderbolt, and at once displays the power of the orator in all its plentitude”2. and unlike pseudo-sublime produced by poetic diction and pompous diction, true sublime uplifts our soul; it pleases all and always; “it takes a proud flight, and is filled with joy and vaunting, as though it had itself produced what it has heard.”3 here, though longinus explained what real sublimity is, he did not tell us the source of it. does sublimity lie in the object or the subject or both? the answer could only be found after a general survey of sublime.above all, it is necessary to keep this notion in mind: sublime does not only exist in literature; it has several expressions. admittedly, longinus extracted the concept of sublime from rhetorical terms, applied it to literature and laid five elements of literature composition, namely, “the power of forming great conceptions”, “vehement and inspired passion”, “due formation of figures”, “noble diction” and “dignified and elevated composition”. from “the five principal sources of elevated language”, we could see that longinus continued the classical tradition of ancient rome. what’s new in his theory is the emphasis on sublime, the passionate factors in the process of literature composition. and this trend was later getting us