The word Rasa literally means taste, flavour,
juice etc. Taking another aspect it is also used to denote the essence of
poetry. It signifies the peculiar experience that poetry affords us. The Rasa
School stresses this experimental or subjective side of poetic meaning.
Bhattanayaka asserted that rasa affects the spectator and developed the theory
further by saying that poetic language is different from ordinary language. He
imposed on rasa theory a system of theology and philosophy.
Rasas (poetic emotions) are invariably pleasurable unlike
some natural emotions like sorrow, fear and disgust which are painful. The
nature of rasa which is the same as aesthetic experience is alaukika (not of
this world) that is transcending the boundaries of worldly experience involving
willing suspension of disbelief, negative capability, aesthetic distance and
detachment. It is realized when an emotion is awakened in the mind in such a
manner that it has none of its usual conative tendencies and is experienced in
an impersonal contemplative mood.
The word Dhvani literally means sound but does
not deal with the function of sound in the musical sense. Anandavardhana in his
book Dhavanyaloka propounded the theory which considers the
indirectly evoked meaning or suggestivity as the characteristic feature of
literary utterance. This feature separates and determines the literary from
other kinds of discourse. Anandavardhana maintains in his book that rasa is
always suggested and that the best poetry is based on suggestion, which is the
soul of poetry. This theory came to be known as Rasa Dhvani theory. Rasa can
never be evoked by using words expressive of the emotional states like love,
sorrow, anger, wonder etc. These emotions are realized by the evocative
presentation of an idea or situation or action or characterization called
dhvani.
According to Kapoor,
All
the subsequent literary theorists in the tradition found the combination of
rasa and dhvani theories both adequate and sufficient to analyse the
constitution of meaning in literature.
Critics such as Bharat and Bhattnayak conclude that rasa or
communicated sensibility is the deciding factor and dhvani or the richness of
the undertones is the soul of poetry.
Can you please explain The 'Other' theory according to Literary Criticism & Theory??
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