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. The claim about literature must be rejected, however, if one regards as legitimate the imagists’ poems, which consist solely of amalgams of disparate images.
My summary of the argument -
From the essayist point of view - For Art to be legitimate, it must represent simultaneous arrays of colored shapes
Lessing considers the imagists’ poems legitimate, which consist solely of amalgams of disparate images.
and for Literature to be legitimate , it must represent events or actions occurring in sequence.
We have to reject the claim that
for Literature to be legitimate , it must represent events or actions occurring in sequence.Which one of the following, if assumed, enables the essayist’s conclusion to be properly drawn?
(A) An amalgam of disparate images cannot represent a sequence of events or actions.
Bridges the gap between what Lessing perceives to be legitimate and in reality what is true(B) Poems whose subject matter is not appropriate to their medium are illegitimate.
Not concerned about poems(C) Lessing was not aware that the imagists’ poetry consists of an amalgam of disparate images.
reverse of what is mentioned in the argument(D) All art, even the imagists’ poetry, depicts or represents some subject matter.
Not concerned about arts as a whole (E) All art represents something either as simultaneous or as successive.
Not concerned about arts as a whole