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Theories of the Sublime
“Sublimity” is a theoretical, aesthetic, ethical and
political concept (i.e., attempting to explain
powerful emotions, lending itself as a tool by
which nature can be understood, tugging at one’s
moral stance, and tied to the revolutionary
atmosphere of the later 18th cent.)
Its thinkers
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Edmund Burke, whose psychological definition
of the concept (c. 1756) ties it to “terror” (e.g.,
feelings of unease and anxiety when one is
close to danger; a paradoxical idea since one
also feels relieved, having avoided danger)
Carl Grosse, whose more literal definition of the
concept (c. 1790) ties it to “depth” in scenery
(e.g., a gorge being more conducive to an
emergence of sublime feelings than a flat plain)
Its components
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according to Burke, fear is essential to its
emergence
according to Grosse, one should peer into an
abyss literally, but also feel great while doing so
Burke context
Brillenburg-Wurth, Kiene. The Musically Sublime. Fordham: Fordham UP, 2009. (pp. xiii-xiv)
Grosse context
Brillenburg-Wurth, Kiene. The Musically Sublime. Fordham: Fordham UP, 2009. (pp. xi-xii)
Its effects