logos in english literature

logos in english literature

The Role of Logos in English Literature

1. Introduction to Logos in Literature

On the basis of the definition of the sign, it is possible to make clear the conditions under which characteristics belonging to a group of objects can serve as ‘signs’. The former must naturally be assumed to possess a certain structure, not shared by objects that are incapable of acting in conformity with specific rules. It is this articulation that makes them members of a language, capable of formulating and preserving rational communication between human beings. Should we be in the presence of a goofy or inexplicable order, the presence of intelligently made signs would have to be recognized, and they would not be attributable to any particular molecular organization, the reason being that there has indeed been neither speech nor language built by evolved intellect.

Language is one of the most powerful means for the creation and understanding of literary thought. The quality of a work of literature depends, apart from the message it conveys, on the material aspect of the language itself, in its various parameters. Evidently, greater poetic value is possessed by those literary forms that are created with a more conscious command of the materials of literary language by the author. Following this path from the perspective of language, we shall examine that figural entity, logos remains a paramount figure of logic, God, religion, divine, etc. in literature. The examination and the decoding of this figure in literature will allow us, also, help to explain the importance of the figure in all literary languages.

2. Historical Evolution of Logos in English Literature

1) The Greek Reason or Logos (Aristotle, Plato, Diogenes etc); 2) The Roman Law or Ius Civile (Cicero, Ulpianus, Papiniano etc); 3) The Christian Theology (St. and Th. Augustine, Abelard, Anselm etc); 4) The Roman or French Law; 5) The Scholastic Philosophy (Scotus, Thomas etc); 6) The Modern World (Bodin Interested in the Law and Hooker in the Reason. Bacon accepted the Destiny, Hobbes was only interested in the entities which constructed the Law and the Religion, Leibniz in the Universal reason, Locke in Law etc). After this new historical-informational beginning brought by Bultmann in 1964 (Logion, Logos) when Aristotle started to talk about the “part of the soul” that gathers “judges and legislators” and about the “laws’ reason” of these, even the literary-logos, which already comes from ancient Greece, that in the different cosmogonies or “legends of origins” philosophically retrogrades to logos-res in the Ionian School and astrological in Pythagoras and his followers, begins to break loose, even more, in the thought of Greek quartet and not only cosmogonical conversations but also calm and philosophical reflection in that Logos-be, although archet and telos, Κόσμος and Νόμος over eleatic dialectic difficulty and hedonistic retraction of Antisthenes and Theodorus, to shake the strong mythological concepts that place God as Telos, above Causality, and a man as imago dei, generating the Divine Right that constantly competed or osculated with the jus Gentium.

The issue of the role of logos in English literature is crucially important in modern historical dynamics, since literary texts are seen to be grasping an essential characteristic of human mentality. Although logos is seen to reflect our ‘clintonic’ consciousness, so far no studies have been made in the English province that justifies the theoretical issues related to this topic. Yet, the debate on the problems of the essence of logos is not recent. The definition of the real beats the problem. There are many dimensions of our clintonic problem and the lexical meaning will be a result of the completeness of those. Therefore, the analysis of many dihpsectic dimensions must be done. With this in mind, throughout this chapter we aim to present a conceptual history of logos in the different areas of human knowledge in the English world.

3. Key Concepts and Theories of Logos in Literary Analysis

Logos refers to the logic, law, norm or order. The concept was developed by ancient Greek philosophers. In classical mythology in various cultures in the West, logos had special significance and the concept was associated with theology, ethics and logic. With the advent of Christianity, this term was assigned even greater importance. Consequently, logos is not a pure philosophical concept. It has religious connotations, generating the concept of the word or the written words. Today, when discussing classic or modern literary works, we also face the concept of logos. Since the Enlightenment, logos has undergone constant evolution and is therefore difficult to define precisely. However, the concept remains a key part of discussions on various literary trends and works. When it comes to the concept of logos in art, people frequently, and necessarily, bring forward the concept of logos that pertains to the philosophy of language or the concept of logos in theology.

As is well-known, a unique feature of the contemporary mythopoetic tradition in English literature is the frequent use of logos, which serves as both a style and an artistic aesthetic in this literary tradition. Logos provides the artistic and conceptual foundation and defines the internal structure of a particular work. The use of logos also aligns the tradition with mainstream cultural ideology and anthropocosmism. Clearly, much value lies in the exploration and articulation of the nature of logos as it applies to literature. We believe that such exploration and articulation not only provide an insight into the artistic and conceptual context of English literary works, but also enrich literary theory with new ideas and methodologies. Artistic literature is a unique and invaluable source of knowledge. As such, literature deserves comprehensive analysis using various fresh approaches to further enrich and refine our understanding.

4. Case Studies: Logos in Selected English Literary Works

In Tintern Abbey, logos stands out without any rhetoric or other voiced emotions. Wordsworth’s vocabulary harps and coaxes the reader straight to the senses, delivering each single slow motion. The result is both poetic, near “inevitably so, but also with a beauty of commentary nature, full of self-awareness of the verbal goal of that knit unity of fabric and texture lived by both soul and nature, with nature actually embedded within the living fabric. Such is a triple joint at once, the semi-mystic body of God, the naked forces of Earth and their utmost, which is man. Wordsworth had already reviewed the role of reason and pathos in the preface to his Lyrical Ballads, and just stated that “the language too of these men has been adopted […] to express simple, as they are impassioned thoughts”. Well done, William!

Aristotle led philosophers and writers to advocate a mix of poetry and rhetoric in forming literary works. In this tradition, this study seeks to demonstrate the mixed features of logos and pathos functioning in literary works. In modern English literature, the two opposite characters of logos and pathos may reach their staged fulfillment which, as literary logos sounds in full voice but supported by the entire resonances of pathos. This study will illustrate this paradox, working on the following famous literary models: Wordsworth’s these concluding verses of “Tintern Abbey”; Joseph Conrad’s concluding paragraphs of Heart of Darkness; Shakespeare’s Macbeth; Joyce’s Finnegans Wake: the concluding segment; T. S. Eliot’s ending of The Waste Land; Conclusion: in lieu of an end.

5. Conclusion and Future Implications

Logos is in the English literature the reason that makes word to be the mirror image of its own structure, hence to be precise, so that the sign in words perch has a resemblance to what is signified, to regularize them to form a manageable universe of words and to serve the functions of naming, describing, and transacting the world, all these to require defining things broadly. The book presents in a table how logical inconsistency removes paradigms to let the result have the grandeur of a simple but powerful rule. Finally, in the application, a short explanation of index terms concept is given, which are a card of a particular type, and then, as known to all, explanation of very simple idea of meanings. It concludes how the reasonableness or fallibility of proposed explanation leaves humanity on either the same plane of existence like that of angels or that of not care or concern about anything but support for body’s physical needs. Therefore it is time that civilization must take the role of real inspiration.

This chapter shows the role of logos in English literature and explains its function in terms of both denotation and connotation, and further in terms of representation as an essential first step of conceptualization or abstraction. It explains the primary process of sign formation generally by introducing uses of crossover of sign pictures that cross-cut each other in different levels of logical type, and then further by showing that in natural language stretching or compression and starts arbitrary to lead to partial synonymy and homonymy, because otherwise no conceptual universe could have developed. It shows also the secondary process, which is hierarchical organization of signs by letting a sign refer to signs in several preceding levels to gain higher economy in the mapping, but strictly interpret required length of sign string to determines levels where a sign can be located, otherwise logical type required could have no effect in defining word assumption meaning and then the possibility of correct communication is lost.