Sainte Beuve's Biographical Criticism: Victorian Criticism

The French literary critic Charles Augustine Sainte Beuve (1804-1869), who developed a personal or biographical technique of literary criticism, is hailed as the most important literary critic of his century. He has propounded a new method of biographical criticism. Sainte Beuve has expressed his critical views and theories in his lectures and essays published in his following works:

1.      La Muse Francoise (1824)

2.      The Globe (1827)

3.      Le Cenacle (1828)

BACKGROUND:                 

When we take a glance at the critical theories developed by De Quincey, Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt, we feel that critical theories were more coloured by Romanticism, because they all lived somewhere during or after the period of Romantic Revival (1798-1830). It was a period when the poets enjoyed the freedom of writing the way they liked. It was a period when the critics interpreted the works with personal taste, likes and dislikes. It was during this time that Sainte Beuve came on the screen with his theory of biographical or historical study of literature.

BIOGRAPHICAL CRITICISM:                  

De facto, Beuve had no precise “method”, no hard and fast principles. A writer has rightly said about him, “Just because he had no hard and fast system of critical principles, his fame as a critic is still undimmed.” He does not discard the old methods of criticism but he emphasized on the need of a new method. R. A. Scott James writes:

“The artist creates only in accordance with the laws 

of his own being, and that no laws imposed from 

outside can be counted upon.”

So the central idea of Sainte Beuve is that the artist cannot escape from his personality. No writer lives in vacuum. All arts spring from the personality of the artists. So, the critic’s job is to understand the mind, life and personality of the author. To understand a work of art, one has to understand the author, his biography in a scientific manner. In this regard, he writes:

“Literary production is not distinct or separable from the 

rest of man and human organization; I can taste a work, 

but it is difficult for me to judge it independently of 

my knowledge of the man himself.”

“Tel arbre, tel fruit.” (When we know the tree, we know the fruit.)

AN IDEAL CRITIC:              

According to Sainte Beuve a critic is an “artists-scientist-critic”. He believed that the critic must himself be a good artist. He must have “a natural vocation and talent for observing.” He writes criticism is, “An art, requiring a clever artist, just as medicine requires medical skill in the practitioner… Poetry can only be touched by a poet.” An ideal critic scientifically examines the work of art. He is a scientist who has the eyes of an artist.

“Arrive at the definition of the man; 

you have then defined his work. Understand, 

and in the light of understanding, define.”

The first thing that the critic should do is to know and understand the character of the artist. He must inquire about his ancestors and his contemporaries. He should not even neglect his brothers, sisters, parents, children, his education, and his social surroundings. The critic must study the youth of the artists as it is considered as the prime time of any artist’s career.

TAINE’S FORMULA:   

There was another French critic, Taine, his contemporary, who adopted a similar method of criticism. Taine believed that literature is the product of social forces. For him, an artist is always the product of his own age. T. S. Eliot too gave his theory of ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’ during the 20^th century. He gave his theory of “race, milieu and moment.”

1.      Race means the history of the author, his ancestors, his parents, his tradition etc.

2.      Milieu means the social surrounding of the author, his culture, his society, his education, his literary circle etc.

3.      Moment means the time period during which the author lived.

LIMITATIONS OF TAINE’S THEORY:                

Taine’s method of historical, social and criticism holds much importance. But it is not enough, because the individual talent too plays an important role in art and poetry. No doubt, every artist is the product of his social surroundings and his traditions, but at the same time it must also be remembered that the two writers living during the same period, living in the same social surroundings do not become equally great. They are different from each other. They have their own individual talent which makes them different from the others. That is the reason why Sainte Beuve focuses more on the study of the author’s personality before studying his works.

Taine says, 

“Man, like every other living thing changes 

with the air that nourishes him.”

But Sainte Beuve says, 

“The critic should give an account of them (authors) 

and tell us how and why they are of such and such 

an order and quality rather than another.”

CONCLUSION:       

In this way, we may sum up the discussion by saying that Sainte Beuve was a French critic who propounded his own theory of Biographical Criticism. He gave importance to the study of the author’s life and biography. According to him, the mind and personality of the author plays an important role in shaping his literature. He believed that a critic must be an artist-scientist-critic. Scientific study of the author’s life makes the critic more akin to the author’s literary works.

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