The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's AesthetikHegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Philosophy
The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Aesthetics
(_γ_) _Finally_, the general condition of a particular people must
not in this tranquil universality of its individual character wholly
oust what is more directly the object of the Epos, in other words, be
described with no reference to that. It ought only to appear as the
_foundation_, upon which an event throughout its entire process is
transacted, one which is in contact with all aspects of the national
life, and one which illustrates the same as it proceeds. Such an
eventuality must not be a purely external incident; it must imply a
deliberately conceived purpose executed by equally deliberate effort.
If, however, these two aspects, namely, the general condition and the
particular action, do not coalesce, then the event in question must
seek its justification in the particular circumstances, the causal
conditions which dominate its movement. That is practically to say the
world of Epos which is reproduced must be conceived under a specific
situation which is so concrete that the definite objects which it is
the function of the epic narrative to realize, are necessarily made
explicit by it. We have already, when discussing the ideal action,[5]
pointed out on general lines that this realization presupposes
situations and circumstances which bring about collisions, actions
that do injury and consequently necessary reactions. The particular
situation, therefore, in which the epic world-condition of a nation
is made actual to us, must of itself be essentially one implying such
_collisions._ In this respect, therefore, epic poetry enters the field
already occupied by dramatic poetry; and we may find it convenient at
once to determine in what respects the collisions of these two types of
poetry differ.
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