In this blog post, we will compare how Tolstoy and Collingwood interpreted the relationship between art and emotion differently and examine the meaning behind their interpretations.
Art is often regarded as the embodiment of human emotions. Through art, we can express our complex inner feelings in visual, auditory, or literary forms, thereby lightening the burden of our emotions and achieving a deeper connection with others. Historically, art has been regarded as a window into the most primitive and genuine emotions of human beings. However, this connection between art and emotion has also often been used to reveal the negative aspects of art. Art has often been regarded as an irrational activity that cannot be controlled by reason, or even as a form of madness. For example, artists sometimes challenge social norms and order, creating works that are unconventional and do not conform to general moral standards. In such cases, art has been perceived as something unstable, dangerous, and beyond reason.
However, there is also a long tradition of interpreting the connection between art and emotion in a positive light. This view believes that art has the power to enrich the human spirit and lead society in a better direction. Tolstoy and Collingwood are representative figures of this view.
According to Tolstoy, just as thoughts need to be communicated to others, so do emotions. Art is the primary means of communicating emotions to others. Artists think of the emotions they want to express and then convey them through their works so that others can empathize with them. For Tolstoy, art is not a mere expression of emotions, but an important medium for forming inner bonds between people through the exchange of emotions. However, the emotions conveyed must be of high quality and capable of leading society in a positive direction. Solidarity and brotherhood are such emotions. In this context, Tolstoy highly valued work songs and folk tales, while he viewed Liszt’s coquettish music and Baudelaire’s nihilistic poetry negatively. A piece of art that expresses good emotions well can move the entire society and even the whole world, contributing to the development of the world.
On the other hand, Collingwood had a different opinion from Tolstoy. Collingwood believed that art that conveys solidarity and brotherhood to society can have adverse effects. As seen in large-scale totalitarian rallies, conveying solidarity through artistic effects sometimes results in strengthening irrational agitation. Through such examples, Collingwood warned that art does not necessarily convey only positive emotions and can sometimes stimulate negative emotions, causing harm to society.
The Tolstoyan association of art and emotion is difficult to escape from the previous criticism of art. Therefore, Collingwood focuses on the internal aspect of organizing emotions rather than the external aspect of conveying emotions. According to Collingwood, just as language is a means of organizing an individual’s thoughts, art is a means of organizing an individual’s emotions. Just as we need to train ourselves to organize our thoughts, we also need to train ourselves to organize our emotions.
In everyday life, we often feel embarrassed when we lose our temper or cry uncontrollably, as if we have revealed our emotions too much. However, anger and sadness cannot be organized by opening a notebook and thinking logically. Thoughts progress like beads on a rosary, but emotions surge suddenly or creep up like fog. It is desirable for such human emotions to be organized through art, which is similar in form. Just as Beethoven organized the twists and turns of his eventful life into his “Fate” symphony, sometimes with bursts of energy and sometimes with tremors, we can do the same through our own artistic means. And once our emotions have been organized through art, art has fulfilled its purpose, even if we do not necessarily communicate them to others.
Tolstoy and Collingwood had different positions, but both defended the value of art by focusing on the positive connection between art and emotions. Their theories contributed to the understanding of Romantic art, which was stormy and turbulent, and served as an important milestone in the process of establishing emotion as an essential element of art. Ultimately, art is emphasized for its importance as an embodiment of emotion, a medium for exploring and expressing the deepest parts of human existence, and for enabling a comprehensive understanding of human experience through the balance of reason and emotion.
