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SUMMARY:The Example of Poetry - Dr Bridget Vincent (English)
DTSTART:20120215T120000Z
DTEND:20120215T140000Z
UID:TALK35229@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ruth Rushworth
DESCRIPTION:This paper presents an introduction to a larger project – a 
 monograph titled ‘The Example of Poetry: Moral Authority and Exemplarity
  in Seamus Heaney and Geoffrey Hill’.  The theoretical impetus for the p
 roject lies in debates surrounding the use of literary examples in analyti
 c moral philosophy – debates associated primarily with Martha Nussbaum\,
  Richard Rorty\, Alasdair MacIntyre and Wayne Booth. These philosophers an
 d critics propose that moral concepts cannot be adequately conveyed using 
 traditional philosophical examples (which tend to be simplified and unreal
 istic)\, and that this problem can be remedied by using examples taken fro
 m literary texts\, in which moral questions are embedded in a detailed nar
 rative context. This research asks whether such claims might productively 
 be made for lyric as well as narrative forms.\n\nA fruitful starting point
  for exploring this potential\, I propose\, lies with the poetry and criti
 cism of poets who have themselves demonstrated a preoccupation with the ex
 emplary dimensions of writing. Seamus Heaney and Geoffrey Hill are two wri
 ters who make frequent recourse to the category of the exemplary poem\, pa
 rticularly in their ongoing meditations on poetic authority. While the lar
 ger project divides attention evenly between the two poets\, this paper\, 
 in presenting an introduction\, focuses on Heaney.  Heaney has consistentl
 y sought to negotiate between a need for aesthetic autonomy and a desire t
 o effect some (however indirect) kind of extraliterary influence\, and for
  him\, the concept of the ‘exemplary’ poem offers a means of articulat
 ing this tension. By definition\, that which is ‘exemplary’ is charact
 erised at once by a Platonically-inflected element of ideality and self-su
 fficiency\, and\, at the same time\, by an assumption of outward influence
  – to be an example is\, ultimately\, to be followed. Heaney provides a 
 persuasive antidote to the restriction of the ‘literary’ to the noveli
 stic not only because exemplarity figures prominently in his work\, but\, 
 most importantly\, because his anxieties about the limits of his own exemp
 lary position raise significant methodological caveats for ethical critics
  of poetry and fiction alike: he raises\, that is\, doubts about the moral
  authority of literature which are elided in more confident and hopeful na
 rrative-centred studies.
LOCATION:CRASSH\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge\, CB3 
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