00088--What are the salient features of good style according to Walter Pater?

                                                                                        

                               Audio Books             

            Effective style is an essential feature of good and great literature.  However, noble and sublime the thoughts and emotions of the author may be, he will not be able to produce great literature if his style of writing is weak or inartistic.  Pater says that there are three factors which determine the style of an author.  They are:  Diction, Design and Personality.

            By diction Pater means vocabulary and choice of fitting words.  The author must be able to apply 'a vocabulary faithful to the colouring of his own spirit'.  He must be able to express his thoughts and sentiments through correct, precise and accurate words befitting the context of the mental situation.  He should not use obsolete and worn-out words.  At the same time he should be economical in the use of words.  He should be cautions against using a single superfluous or out-of-the context word.  He should also avoid using uncommon, high-sounding and difficult words.      

            Then comes the design of the whole work and its chapters.  He should conceive of the total design and structure of the work before starting it.  He should have an architectural design before his mental eye.  He should "foresee the end in the beginning and never lose sight of it, and in every part remain conscious of all the rest, till the last sentence occurs, with undiminished vigour unfold and justify the first".

            In the end comes the role of the personality of the author.  The author should have a large heart, a broad mind, and generous personality.  It is rightly said the style is the man himself.  A mean  mind cannot conceive of sublime thought or expressions.  A man's  soul peeps out through his style.  The author should have 'the soul of humanity' in him. 

00087--Discuss Walter Pater's Theory of Art OR Discuss Walter Pater's Theory of Art for Art's Sake

            On the question of the function of Art in general, and of poetry in particular the Victorians were divided into two campuses.  One camp represented by Carlyle and Ruskin who advocated the theory of Art for Life's Sake, and the other camp represented by Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater pleaded for Art for Art's Sake.

            

Pater became the champion of the theory of 'Art for Art's Sake.'  The central point of this theory was that the only function of Art should be to 'give aesthetic pleasure' 'to give rapture to the soul', 'to give an elevating excitement to the soul.'  Art should have nothing to do with moral preaching or teaching man 'how to live.'  Art should have no exterior motive beyond the aesthetic pleasure of the highest order that it must give.  Pater says that the true function of art is 'to give nothing but the highest quality of aesthetic excitement to the moments of life as they pass'.  That Art delights and enriches the soul is its sufficient justification.  Thus art is its own reward:  it beholds the spectacle of life 'for the mere joy of beholding' and for no other purpose.  It is a delightful experience in itself.  When applied to literature, it means literature of power, as against the literature of knowledge.  Literature of power gives new and beautiful shape to the facts of life.  Whether written in prose or verse, it must add to the grandeur of thought, to the nobility of emotions, and to the elevation of the soul.  This approach would make art 'not only good art, but also great art.'