In literary criticism, an objective correlative is a group of things or events which systematically represent emotions.

Theory

The theory of the objective correlative as it relates to literature was largely developed through the writings of the poet and literary critic

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

, who is associated with the literary group called the

New Critics New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned a ...

. Helping define the objective correlative, Eliot's essay " Hamlet and His Problems", republished in his book '' The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism'' discusses his view of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's incomplete development of Hamlet's emotions in the play ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

''. Eliot uses Lady Macbeth's state of mind as an example of the successful objective correlative: "The artistic 'inevitability' lies in this complete adequacy of the external to the emotion….", as a contrast to Hamlet. According to Eliot, the feelings of Hamlet are not sufficiently supported by the story and the other characters surrounding him. The objective correlative's purpose is to express the character's emotions by ''showing'' rather than ''describing'' feelings as discussed earlier by

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

and referred to by Peter Barry in his book ''Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory'' as "...perhaps little more than the ancient distinction (first made by Plato) between mimesis and diegesis…." (28). According to Formalist critics, this action of creating an emotion through external factors and evidence linked together and thus forming an objective correlative should produce an author's detachment from the depicted character and unite the emotion of the literary work. The "occasion" of Eugenio Montale is a further form of correlative. The works of Eliot were translated into Italian by Montale, who earned the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Origin of terminology

The term was coined by the American painter and poet Washington Allston (1779-1843), and was introduced by T.S. Eliot, rather casually, into his essay "Hamlet and His Problems" (1919); its subsequent vogue in literary criticism, Eliot said, astonished him. In "Hamlet and His Problems", Eliot used the term exclusively to refer to his claimed artistic mechanism whereby emotion is evoked in the audience: It seems to be in deference to this principle that Eliot famously described the play ''Hamlet'' as "most certainly an artistic failure": Eliot felt that Hamlet's strong emotions "exceeded the facts" of the play, which is to say they were not supported by an "objective correlative". He acknowledged that such a circumstance is "something which every person of sensibility has known," but felt that in trying to represent it dramatically, "Shakespeare tackled a problem which proved too much for him".

Criticisms

One possible criticism of Eliot's theory includes his assumption that an author's intentions concerning expression will be understood in one way only. This point is stated by Balachandra Rajan as quoted in David A. Goldfarb's "New Reference Works in Literary Theory" with these words: "Eliot argues that there is a verbal formula for any given state of emotion which, when found and used, will evoke that state and no other."

Examples

A famous haiku by

Yosa Buson was a Japanese poet and Painting, painter of the Edo period. He lived from 1716 – January 17, 1784. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing ...

entitled, ''The Piercing Chill I Feel'' illustrates the use of objective correlative within poetry:

The piercing chill I feel:
my dead wife's comb, in our bedroom,
under my heel...

In the

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

movie ''

Jersey Boys ''Jersey Boys'' is a jukebox musical with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and breakup of the 1960s rock 'n' roll group The Four Seasons. The mus ...

'', songwriter

Bob Gaudio Robert John Gaudio (born November 17, 1942) is an American songwriter, singer, musician, and record producer, and the keyboardist and backing vocalist of the pop/rock band the Four Seasons. Gaudio wrote or co-wrote the vast majority of the ban ...

of '' The 4 Seasons'' is asked who the girl is in his song ''Cry For Me''. He makes reference to T.S. Eliot's topic, "the Objective Correlative", as the subject being every girl, or any girl. In adherence to this reference, the author allows himself the literary license to step outside the scope of his personal experience, and to conjecture about the emotions and responses inherent with the situation, and utilize the third party perspective in the first party presentation.{{cite AV media , people=Eastwood, Clint (Director) , date=June 20, 2014 , title=Jersey Boys , medium=Motion picture , location=United States , publisher= MK Films,

Malpaso Productions Malpaso Productions is Clint Eastwood's production company. It was established in 1967 as The Malpaso Company by Eastwood's financial adviser Irving Leonard (financial adviser), Irving Leonard for the film ''Hang 'Em High'' (1968), using profi ...

Footnotes

References

* Barry, Peter: Beginning Theory. An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 2nd ed. New York: Manchester University Press, 2002. * Eliot, T. S. "Hamlet and His Problems." 5 April. 2007. http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw9.html. * Goldfarb, David A. "New Reference Works in Literary Theory." Conference: a journal of philosophy and theory, 1995. 9 April 2007. http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/encyc.htm. * Heehler, Tom. The Well-Spoken Thesaurus: The Objective Correlative and Barbara Kingsolver. Sourcebooks, 2011. * Vivas, Eliseo, ''The Objective Correlative of T. S. Eliot,'' reprinted in Critiques and Essays in Criticism, ed. Robert W. Stallman (1949). * Witkoski, Michael. "The bottle that isn't there and the duck that can't be heard: The 'subjective correlative' in commercial messages." Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education. Vol. 3. Toronto: Toronto Press, 2003. 9 April 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20110927010329/http://www.utpjournals.com/simile/issue11/witkoskifulltext.html.

External links

Objective Correlative at Literary Encyclopedia
* http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw9.html * http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/encyc.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20110927010329/http://www.utpjournals.com/simile/issue11/witkoskifulltext.html Literary theory T. S. Eliot