3S
人文学部ゼミブログ
2008.04.02
- 人文学部
- 英語英米文化学科
イギリス文学演習 （ポール・ミンフォード）
「芸術とは何か？」という問いには、数千年にわたる議論が繰り返されてきましたが、答はひとつではありません。ミンフォード先生は、芸術とは世界を新鮮な目で見せてくれるものだと考えます。
文学も芸術の一ジャンルですが、文学もまた私たちに新たな目で世界を見るよう迫ってくるものです。文学を読むことは、楽な経験とは限りません。それまでの常識が覆されると、どこにどのように焦点を絞ったらよいのかわからなくなりがちです。そういうときに教師やゼミの仲間との対話が助けになります。社会の一 員である大人として世界を理解できるようになることが、大学に通う目的のひとつでもありますが、ゼミはその訓練のために最適の場です。
以下はミンフォード先生のお書きになった原文です。上記にまとめたことが書かれていますので、英文読解の訓練としても、ぜひ読んでみてください。
英米比較文化学科教授 吉川純子
Philosophers have spent thousands of years failing to agree on the answer to the question “What is art?”
A universally satisfactory definition is probably impossible, and I am certainly not brave enough to attempt one.
However, even if producing a definition is too ambitious, all those who study or are thinking of studying one of ‘The Arts’ need to consider the qualities they expect a work of art to possess, and to ask themselves which of these they deem to be most important. Since people have different priorities and viewpoints, their answers are likely to be personal: some will stress representational qualities (how ‘true’ is art to life?); others will favor expressional qualities (to what extent does art possess ‘meaning’?); there will be those who focus on the artist’s formal skills (how ‘well’ has the artist mastered the tools of his or her craft?); and perhaps there will even be a few for whom the only important question about a work of art is how much critically-informed people are willing to pay for it. For me at least, one ‘litmus test’ property subsumes all the rest: a work deserves to be taken seriously as ‘art’ if it makes us look afresh at the world. All attempts at formalization aside, most of us sense when we have had an artistic experience. When a work has made us stop, demanded our attention, challenged our perceptions, forced us to contemplate society and our place within it, shown us things that we may have seen before but never really noticed, and perhaps hinted at links between them and the possibility of other meanings—this is, surely, when we acknowledge that we have been in the presence of ‘art’.
What on earth has all this to do with a literature seminar? Only this. Literature, at its best, should challenge you to look at the world with new eyes. Sometimes the challenge is a difficult one: you may be unsettled and your vision may be blurred; you are not sure how to focus, or what to focus on. At these times, extra information or guidance may be required to help you clear your vision. Alternatively, it could just be discussion with a friend that provides your moment of clarity, allowing you to utter a relieved “Oh! Now I see.” Ultimately—as with the vexed question of “What is art?”—how you look and what you choose to see are personal responses. Knowing Plato’s theories about art may help you to focus your own ideas on the subject, but it should not dictate them. There is no single ‘right way’ to look, any more than there is a single answer to what you should see. What is important, however, is the fact of looking. Trying to make sense of the world before you venture out into it as an adult member of society is one of the reasons for coming to university. Literature provides a gateway for this process, and the environment of the literature seminar, in which you exchange ideas with friends under the guidance of your teacher, is the perfect place to carry it out.
文学も芸術の一ジャンルですが、文学もまた私たちに新たな目で世界を見るよう迫ってくるものです。文学を読むことは、楽な経験とは限りません。それまでの常識が覆されると、どこにどのように焦点を絞ったらよいのかわからなくなりがちです。そういうときに教師やゼミの仲間との対話が助けになります。社会の一 員である大人として世界を理解できるようになることが、大学に通う目的のひとつでもありますが、ゼミはその訓練のために最適の場です。
以下はミンフォード先生のお書きになった原文です。上記にまとめたことが書かれていますので、英文読解の訓練としても、ぜひ読んでみてください。
英米比較文化学科教授 吉川純子
Philosophers have spent thousands of years failing to agree on the answer to the question “What is art?”
A universally satisfactory definition is probably impossible, and I am certainly not brave enough to attempt one.
However, even if producing a definition is too ambitious, all those who study or are thinking of studying one of ‘The Arts’ need to consider the qualities they expect a work of art to possess, and to ask themselves which of these they deem to be most important. Since people have different priorities and viewpoints, their answers are likely to be personal: some will stress representational qualities (how ‘true’ is art to life?); others will favor expressional qualities (to what extent does art possess ‘meaning’?); there will be those who focus on the artist’s formal skills (how ‘well’ has the artist mastered the tools of his or her craft?); and perhaps there will even be a few for whom the only important question about a work of art is how much critically-informed people are willing to pay for it. For me at least, one ‘litmus test’ property subsumes all the rest: a work deserves to be taken seriously as ‘art’ if it makes us look afresh at the world. All attempts at formalization aside, most of us sense when we have had an artistic experience. When a work has made us stop, demanded our attention, challenged our perceptions, forced us to contemplate society and our place within it, shown us things that we may have seen before but never really noticed, and perhaps hinted at links between them and the possibility of other meanings—this is, surely, when we acknowledge that we have been in the presence of ‘art’.
What on earth has all this to do with a literature seminar? Only this. Literature, at its best, should challenge you to look at the world with new eyes. Sometimes the challenge is a difficult one: you may be unsettled and your vision may be blurred; you are not sure how to focus, or what to focus on. At these times, extra information or guidance may be required to help you clear your vision. Alternatively, it could just be discussion with a friend that provides your moment of clarity, allowing you to utter a relieved “Oh! Now I see.” Ultimately—as with the vexed question of “What is art?”—how you look and what you choose to see are personal responses. Knowing Plato’s theories about art may help you to focus your own ideas on the subject, but it should not dictate them. There is no single ‘right way’ to look, any more than there is a single answer to what you should see. What is important, however, is the fact of looking. Trying to make sense of the world before you venture out into it as an adult member of society is one of the reasons for coming to university. Literature provides a gateway for this process, and the environment of the literature seminar, in which you exchange ideas with friends under the guidance of your teacher, is the perfect place to carry it out.