Largely "content merely to enact the sublime and work intuitively," this early treatment lacks the incisiveness of later theories. The author defines sublime feeling as "the presence of noble passion," qualifying as sublime any literary works exhibiting "an elevated and lofty style." He offers numerous examples of sublime writing, from Homer to the Greek tragedians and, most interestingly, the book of Genesis, an unusual reference suggesting that the author may "have been a Hellenized Jew." Pseudo-Longinus's writing often sacrifices analytic rigor in favor of awe before the sublime. On the Sublime is a rhetorical analysis of how writers achieve the effect of sublimity it thus offers little substantial characterization of the sublime itself. Most still refer to Longinus as the author, but only "as a matter of convenience," and those seriously engaged with the treatise call its author Pseudo-Longinus for clarity. It attributes the essay to "either.Dionysus of Halicarnassus or Cassius Longinus, the third-century pupil of Plotinus" but scholars have compellingly argued that neither of these men wrote On the Sublime. Modern translations of this text derive "from a tenth-century medieval manuscript that offers conflicting statements as to the identity of the treatise's creator"(Leitch 135). The earliest extant treatment is a fragmentary Greek essay entitled On the Sublime, dated to the first century C.E. Theoretical debates continue over its affective impacts, its cognitive structure, and its meaning when used to describe an object.Įarly writings on the sublime offer foundational precepts for later models but are not of themselves central to current media theory. Though theories of the sublime have been applied to a wide array of media-from Greek tragedy to computers-two millennia of thinkers have not developed consensus on the logic behind sublimity. The Oxford English Dictionary defines " sublime"-when it applies to "things in nature and art"-as "affecting the mind with a sense of overwhelming grandeur or irresistible power calculated to inspire awe, deep reverence, or lofty emotion, by reason of its beauty, vastness, or grandeur." The word comes to English from the Latin sub, meaning "up to," and limen, meaning "lintel" liminality plays a crucial role in the analysis of sublimity. As such, it describes how a wide range of sensory mediations impact observers, both emotionally and cognitively. The sublime is a concept central to aesthetics.
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