Self-study
Essayist: Lessing contended that an art form's medium dictates the kind of representation the art form must employ in order to be legitimate; painting, for example, must represent simultaneous arrays of colored shapes, while literature, consisting of words read in succession, must represent events or actions occurring in sequence. ███ █████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ █████████ ███████
Summary
The essayist concludes that if one considers imagists’ poems to be legitimate, then Lessing’s claim about literature— that legitimate literature must represent events in sequence— must be rejected. He supports this by noting that imagists’ poems only consist of amalgams (or combinations) of disparate images.
Missing Connection
The essayist concludes that Lessing’s claim about literature must be rejected simply because imagists’ poems are made up of amalgams of disparate images. But Lessing claimed that legitimate literature just needs to represent events in sequence. If imagists’ poems do represent events in sequence, then his claim might not need to be rejected.
So, for the argument to be valid, the essayist must assume that imagists’ poems cannot represent events or actions in sequence.
7.
Which one of the following, ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████
a
An amalgam of █████████ ██████ ██████ █████████ █ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████
Lessing claimed that legitimate literature must represent events or actions in sequence. If amalgams of disparate images can’t represent a sequence of events or actions, then Lessing’s claim must be rejected, as long as one considers imagists’ poems to be legitimate literature.
b
Poems whose subject ██████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ █████████████
We don’t know anything about the subject matter of imagists’ poems or whether it’s appropriate to their medium. Even if (B) is true, it doesn’t establish whether these poems can represent events in sequence or whether Lessing’s claim about literature must be rejected.
c
Lessing was not █████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ █████████ ███████
This doesn’t establish whether imagists’ poetry can represent events or actions in sequence. Even if Lessing wasn’t aware of imagists’ poetry, this doesn’t make the essayist’s argument valid because it doesn’t confirm that Lessing’s claim about literature must be rejected.
d
All art, even ███ █████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███████
Imagists’ poetry may depict or represent “some subject matter,” but we need to know whether it can represent events or actions in sequence. If it can’t, then the essayist’s argument is valid and Lessing’s claim must be rejected.
e
All art represents █████████ ██████ ██ ████████████ ██ ██ ███████████
The fact that imagists’ poetry represents something as either simultaneous or successive leaves open the possibility that this poetry can represent events in sequence. So (E) doesn’t establish that Lessing’s claim must be rejected.