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Abstract: The article deals with the critical essays of an outstanding 18th century English writer Joseph Warton who is traditionally viewed only as the beginner of the revision of A. Pope’s heritage and a pioneer of English Pre-Romanticism. Meanwhile, his publications in The Adventurer make it possible to study more thoroughly and objectively the sources and basic tenets of his aesthetic theory which is distinguished by heterogeneity and which reflects the transition state of English literary criticism in the mid-eighteenth century. The aim of this article is to make a comprehensive examination of Warton’s essays in order to clarify the peculiarity of his critical method and define his role in the formation of English Pre-Romanticism. The research methodology rests on a moder- nized conception of 18th century English literary process, which approaches its development not from the point of view of its stadial character, but as a complex phenomenon, distinguished by a compromising character of the writers’ and critics’ aesthetic search and interpenetration of the leading literary trends. The paper analyses the genesis of Warton’s literary theory and the specificity of his views on the mimetic nature of art in a broad context of ancient and English aesthetic ideas with focus on the basic elements of his conceptions of imagination, the sublime, and the pathetic. Warton’s position in the ancient-modern controversy and his views on genre poetics are also considered. It is shown that the central place in the critic’s aesthetics belongs to the category of the sublime, the conception of which was developed by him under the influence of Pseudo-Longinus, Quintilian and J. Addison. This conception determines his reception of biblical texts, Homer’s and Shakespeare’s works. Meanwhile, Warton’s views go back to both Pseudo-Longinian and Horatian ideas which presuppose, respectively, the original and the universal in the artistic representation. These influences determine a compromise between neo-classical (Augustan) and pre-romantic approaches in his literary criticism.

About the author(s) :

Oleg Y. Polyakov

Vyatka State University (Kirov, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9362-7720

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 18.08.2021; date of publication: 25.12.2021.

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