PrepTest 129, Section 2, Question 7
Essayist: Lessing contended that an art form's medium(65 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(10 more words not shown)
- AAn amalgam of(10 more words not shown)
- BPoems whose subject(9 more words not shown)
- CLessing was not(12 more words not shown)
- DAll art, even(9 more words not shown)
- EAll art represents(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What does an art form's medium require it to represent? Lessing's answer ties representation to the form of the art: painting presents colored shapes together, while literature uses words that we read one after another. On that view, legitimate literature must represent events or actions occurring in sequence.
The essayist offers imagist poems as a challenge. “Amalgams of disparate images” means combinations of distinct images. These can be images evoked in words; we do not need to imagine that the poems are literally collections of pictures. The claim is conditional: if we accept these poems as legitimate literature, we must reject Lessing's requirement.
But why couldn't a collection of images represent a sequence? Imagine a poem presenting a closed door, a hand opening it, and someone stepping outside. The writing could consist of images and still portray successive actions. Merely calling something an amalgam of images does not establish that it fails Lessing's test.
What we’re looking for
To make the conclusion follow, we need that missing connection. These poems must lack the sequence of events or actions that Lessing says legitimate literature requires. If they are legitimate despite lacking that feature, they provide a counterexample to the requirement.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This rules out an amalgam of disparate images representing a sequence of events or actions. The imagists' poems consist solely of those amalgams, so they lack the feature Lessing requires. If we nevertheless regard them as legitimate, Lessing's claim that legitimate literature must have that feature cannot stand.
- B
This gives a rule for calling poems illegitimate when their subject matter is inappropriate to their medium. It does not establish that the imagists' poems lack a sequence of events or actions. Nor does it explain why accepting those poems as legitimate would contradict Lessing's specific claim.
- C
Lessing's knowledge does not settle whether the proposed requirement is correct. Lessing could know about these poems and defend the requirement, or overlook them and still have a correct rule. We need to show that the accepted poems violate the requirement, not that Lessing was unaware of their contents.
- D
Representing some subject matter is compatible with representing events in sequence. This broad statement about all art does not tell us that the imagists' poems fall outside Lessing's account of legitimate literature.
- E
This gives two possibilities: simultaneous representation or successive representation. It does not say which applies to the poems. If their images represent things successively, Lessing's requirement might still be satisfied. A supplies the exclusion that E leaves open.
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