Tomislav Osmanli

The Sublime — A supra-aesthetic aspect

The sublime in itself includes a special dimensionality. The Greek term το ύψος, sublimity, at the same time means „height“, and it also indicates an upwardly growing verticality in the value system; it is not only an ancient Western European one, but also an oriental axiological category, and the sublime, sublimity stands at its top. Thus, the sublime exists as a universally present category, which is always above all other ethical and esthetical value measures. This is clearly indicated by Kant, in his writing Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime[1].

When we speak of the great values that ancient rhetoric names „grand“ (grandis), but also „grave“ (gravis), especially in the area of literature, where we speak of „profound“ (profundi) works, it is good to note those value determinants which bring in another, opposite direction of the value vertical—downwards, so to say—to the gravity core of values[2].

If this is so, is deep also sublime? In this case, does the syntagm: the deeper—the higher apply? This is a dilemma not constructed according to the rhetorical argument of the opposite, but a real and delicate dialectics functioning within it. It is, for example, nicely illustrated by the significant material of myths and rituals. For example, with the Samotraki mysteries in Antiquity, which bring together the life born world of the omni-mother (παμμήτωρ) Demeter with the underground world of Persephone, which is the core (Κόρη) daughter, who is abducted by Pluto and brought into the underground kingdom; so, the daughter longs to return to her mother, and, in cycles, the life world is born from the sprout that the Mother conceives from the seed inside her, it dies, sinks into the ground, so it can root again in a new life which comes to the surface and goes to the sun. This an endless cycle of rebirth (παλιγγενεσία) and the overall renewal in the universal epos of existence and the change with which death enables life, as well as the fall that enables future growth[3].

Here we should also take into consideration the tragic nature that is released by the events in the modern world, the shaky syntagm springing as a humanist cry because of the Nazi holocausts of complete ethnic and social groups (Jews, Slavs, Sinti, Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah witnesses, etc): „Can one write poetry after Auschwitz? “, until the disturbing demolition of the high symbols of modern western values, the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York.

Lyric verses (will be) were written after Auschwitz as well, simply because the tragic experience of human existence is not an obstacle, but a stimulus for creation. Thousands of disturbing works have been created on the occasion of Auschwitz, and poems were created in the camp itself[4]. The fall of the New York skyscrapers into dust and ash by a terrorist act, on the other side, is not an end of a civilization, not even an absolute loss of this symbol of the impressive physical heights, which are reached by each modern civilization—aspiring to the sky, not the first time after Babylon—I would like to add: although New York twin towers were not demolished by the rage of God, but by the rage of a category of dehumanized desperados. Thus, a construction will rise from below, and the ground Zero will have a supra-structure which will be number One in the architectural heights, from a newly won game in the trans-historical competition with the gravity and underground forces.

Prose and poetry will be written for the tragic loss of the Manhattan towers, but also on the occasion of Iraq intervention, new anthems for Bin Laden by the fanatics with the name of God on their lips, blowing themselves up and taking other lives with them; there will be disturbing writing about their families and about the innocent victims coming from their despair. People will continue writing about everything, but these statements will hardly reach the ideal of sublimity, as long as they are motivated by individual aspects. These events contain the same, if not bigger tragedy, as the one of the ancient war for Troy, and yet we do not see such capital works and events that produce the sublime. Homer gives us a unique perspective, while the contemporary artist observes a divided view of this disturbing reality, where they usually select a side (of the view of the author).

How does Homer reach the sublime in his Iliad? In such a way that he looks in total at the ten year course of the most awful war of the archaic period of western European civilization. In his poetic and poetical view of the world, he encompasses both totality and individuality. Both sides of the parties at war are here, the gods in argument, their weaknesses and biases, the impulsive changes of luck in the war, but also the characters of the human leaders of the armies, the characters of their leaders, the war’s most distinguished warriors, the heroes with their virtues, weaknesses and faults, their passions, their illusions and their mistakes, all of this material necessary for the grandiose construction of the sublime epos. The work of Homer would not have had the sublimity if it had not been for this skilfully changed view of the high total and character detail made by the Poet in several personal virtues: a) his honest feeling—the thing that resides on the experienced tragedy and inhumanity in the war, which is a motive for a work without taking sides, as well as b) artistic trance, and c) poetic measure[5].

Besides these three subjective creative features, sublimity is also made by an aspect. It is the aspect that the great author has in the artistic observation and expression of characters and events that he writes about. It does not belong to the creative reaching of the sublime with one's eyes looking upwards, to the mountains, clouds, to God; it is rather the eyes looking from upward: from the mountains, from the clouds, from God’s side. The sublime is the aspect of such a total and detailed aspect seen from above, from destiny’s heights—towards the general drama and specific tragic nature of human existence. It is not by accident that the historical view of the sublime approaches theological themes and motives—in the unclear feeling that is an aspect of the divine heights and in that respect a supreme demiurge (δημιουργία) of the man-creator. Therefore, the sublime exists rarely in a work of art, but the creators of these works are considered geniuses or creators, close to the (view of) God.

Therefore:

A) Sublimity is neither a dimension nor a value resulting from it; it is not a diastases (διάστασης), but rather a hypostasis (υπόστασης), substance.

B) That is why the view towards the heights incites delight, and the View from the heights—magnificence.

C) The sublimity of a work, in a word, is a subjective view from the aspect of God.

This is where the universalism of the sublime comes from; the trans-temporal and trans-spatial actuality of the work that the sublime contains by definition. The dimension that Pseudo-Longinus defines in the seventh chapter of his work: „Consider those examples of sublimity that are liked by all people at all times beautiful and true“[6].

Taking into consideration the above conclusions, it is not by accident that the spirit’s magnificent creations contain the fundamental theological books of the world’s religions and the Bibles of human civilization whose magnificent experience keeps them on a high pedestal, where they were placed not only by the aesthetics, but by the overall humanities.

In that respect, following the lines of Kant's distinction of the beautiful on one hand, and the magnificent on a higher level[7], I am prone to think that the former belongs to the aesthetics, while the category of the magnificent is supra-aesthetic. It exists at a level where all virtues, dramas and tragedies of humanity depicted by experience are united, and where the ethics, aesthetics and theology enter a rich dialogue.

Translated from the Macedonian by
Elizabeta Bakovska

[1] Beobacthungen über das gefühl des schönen und erdhabeben, a 1763 work of Immanuel Kant, in which he writes: „The feeling of a more refined type that we want to examine, is mainly dual: the feeling of „sublimity“ and the feeling of „beautiful“. They are both pleasant, but in a very different way. The view of the hills whose snow covered peaks rise above the clouds, the description of the raging tempest, or the image of the Hell given by Milton incite liking, but liking followed by a scary feeling; on the contrary, the view of the blossoming meadows, valleys with meandering springs, where herds graze, the description of the Elysium or Homer's image of Venus also incite positive feelings, but ones followed by joy and smile ...“ (Imanuel Kant, O lepom i uzvišenom, Beograd, Grafos, 1988, p. 16). And: „The sublime features incite respect, and the beautiful incite love“. (op. cit., p. 19); and then: ... „the sublime influences us more than the beautiful, except that the sublime, unless followed by the beautiful tires us and one can not enjoy it for a long time“ (op. cit., p. 19).

[2] It is not by accident that significant works are named „De profundis“, „Ex profundis“, and the thankfulness, in a negative context, is expressed „from the bottom of the soul“.

[3] Đurić, M. N.: „Mit o Demetri i Kori kao osnova Eleusinskih misterija“, Istorija helenske etike, Beograd, BIGZ, 1976, pp. 4-22.

[4] See: (1) the written testimonies and the photographs of the camp from the professional photographer and Auschwitz survivor Χαιντς Σαλβατνωρ Κουνιο (ΕΖΗΣΑ ΤΟ ΘΑΝΑΤΟ, το ημερολόγιο του αριθμού 109565, δεύτερη έκδοση, Θεσσαλονίκη, 1982, p. 576); (2) the upsetting poem in Yiddish by the Polish poet Yitzhak Katznelson (born 1886—murdered in the night of 30 April 1944), written in Auschwitz on 30 October 1943, entitled "The Train Cars Again"; (3) the poem of Avram Sadikario, Датуми на пеколот (Скопје, Македонско-израелско друштво на пријателство и соработка, 1996).

[5] Pseudo–Longinus in this respect distinguishes Homer's Odyssey from his Iliad, favouring the latter, finding poetic exaggerations and overemphasises in the archaic epos dedicated to Ithaca king's return and yearning for home, although this epos is also written according to principles similar to those of Iliad.

[6] Псевдо-Лонгин, За возвишеноста, Скопје, Магор, 2004 : 46.

[7] Immanuel Kant, op. cit., p.16