John Middleton Murry (1889–1957)
Auteur van The problem of style
Over de Auteur
Ontwarringsbericht:
(eng) John Middleton Murry JUNIOR, the son of the better known editor and Keats scholar (etc), was also a writer usually under the pseudonyms Richard Cowper or Colin Murry. The books of JMM father and son should of course not be combined, and Middleton Murry Senior (the author of most of the JMM works here) should not be combined as an author with Richard Cowper, as has sometimes been done on LT.
Werken van John Middleton Murry
Jesus, man of genius 4 exemplaren
Poets, critics, mystics : a selection of criticisms written between 1919 and 1955 (1970) 2 exemplaren
Poems, 1917-1918 2 exemplaren
Cinnamon and Angelica : a play 2 exemplaren
The Evolution of an Intellectual 2 exemplaren
Community Farm 2 exemplaren
Europe in travail 1 exemplaar
The challenge of Schweitzer 1 exemplaar
Discoveries 1 exemplaar
The conquest of death 1 exemplaar
The Defence of Democracy 1 exemplaar
John Clare and Other Studies 1 exemplaar
The Brotherhood of Peace 1 exemplaar
The Adelphi, August, 1924 1 exemplaar
The Adelphi, January, 1927 1 exemplaar
Things to Come 1 exemplaar
The necessity of pacifism 1 exemplaar
The things we are : a novel 1 exemplaar
The Adelphi 1 exemplaar
Rhythm; art, music, literature monthly 1 exemplaar
Democracy and war 1 exemplaar
Poems 1916 - 20 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
Then and Now. A Selection of Articles, Stories & Poems, Taken from the First Fifty Numbers of ‘Now & Then’,… (1935) — Medewerker — 2 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geboortedatum
- 1889-08-06
- Overlijdensdatum
- 1957-03-13
- Graflocatie
- Thelnetham Church, Suffolk, England, UK
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- England
UK - Geboorteplaats
- Peckham, London, England, UK
- Plaats van overlijden
- Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, UK
- Woonplaatsen
- London, England, UK
- Opleiding
- Oxford University (Brasenose College)
Christ's Hospital, West Sussex, England, UK - Beroepen
- writer
critic
editor (literary)
author - Relaties
- Mansfield, Katherine (wife)
Cowper, Richard (son) - Ontwarringsbericht
- John Middleton Murry JUNIOR, the son of the better known editor and Keats scholar (etc), was also a writer usually under the pseudonyms Richard Cowper or Colin Murry. The books of JMM father and son should of course not be combined, and Middleton Murry Senior (the author of most of the JMM works here) should not be combined as an author with Richard Cowper, as has sometimes been done on LT.
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Statistieken
- Werken
- 65
- Ook door
- 9
- Leden
- 262
- Populariteit
- #87,814
- Waardering
- 3.7
- Besprekingen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 46
- Talen
- 1
In the first lecture, appropriately enough, Murry grapples with the question of what we mean by style. Style, Murry asserts, is a term often used vaguely. He outlines three senses of the term. The most basic is the simple ability to marshal what you want to say in a way readers can follow. One with no sense of formulating a sentence or organizing a paragraph has no style, we say. Then there is style as idiosyncrasy (which Murry actually treats first). Show me one paragraph selected at random written by Karl Barth and I can identify the author. Readers more skilled than I will invariably not only do the same with Henry James, but tell you if it’s from his early, middle, or late period. Finally, there is what Murry calls Style Absolute; “a complete fusion of the personal and the universal.” This, Murry tells us, is the highest achievement of literature.
The absolute master of Style Absolute is (spoiler alert not necessary) Shakespeare. Also highly rated is Keats and, among authors active in Murry’s day, Hardy.
This doesn’t strike me as controversial, but apparently at the time this was an unabashedly elitist position, taken in opposition to those who decried style as unnecessary ornament and who advocated a flat style.
Not until the fourth lecture, however, does Murry deal with what he calls the central problem of style. This is the application of qualities of other art forms (rhythm from music and visual imagery from painting). These can also be qualities of written style, Murry concedes, but they are subordinate. The essential quality, however, is precision, also called crystallization. It seemed surprising at first that one means of achieving this, according to Murry, is metaphor. Rather than being an ornament, it is at times the most effective way to convey emotion (which he values—in the case of literature—above intellectual precision). And “in literature,” he assures us, “thought is always the handmaid of emotion.”
In the end, it seems, style is not technique. It comes from clear thought and honest feeling. As Murry writes: even “the smallest writer can do something to ensure that his individuality is not lost, by trying to make sure that he feels what he thinks he feels;—that he thinks what he thinks he thinks, that his words mean what he thinks they mean.”… (meer)