THE GREATEST WRITERS: Jane Austen and Shakespeare

There are many reasons that my writing is far, far, from the category of "the greatest of writers." My writing does not rise to a level of impersonality. My writing is highly memoiristic and autobiographical; indeed my writing relies on authorial self-projection. Writers such as Jane Austen and Shakespeare are considered the greatest of writers for many reasons. One reason is that their characters rise to a level of impersonality that is not to be explained, or explained away, as authorial self-projection. Their characters are defined crucially by their autonomy, independence and integrity. This is not simply because the characters are endowed with voices of their own, that is, endowed with their own highly individuated speech patterns. They also live within what one could call the context of the whole universe that is the literary work in which they appear.

As a crucial passage in Aristotle's Poetics expresses this idea: the force of great artists is not merely in representing men and women, but in a mimesis of action, or what might be called pure action. In this realm of pure action neither authors nor actors are primarily interested in presenting, directly or indirectly, their own characters. The greatest of writers "embrace their characters for the sake of the actions they are to do.”(1) --Ron Price with thanks to Aristotle, Poetics, page 73. For a detailed discussion of this somewhat complex subject go to: http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Artic...5/3_Baxter.pdf