Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s classic plays are among the compositions which validate morality and edify readers about ‘human nature’.
Abraham
Lionel Trilling cites the biblical Abraham, who is categorized as ‘not sincere’, to underscore the import of considering cultural settings to before inferring whether an individual is sincere or not.
Achilles and Beowulf
Lionel Trilling regards ‘Achilles and Beowulf’ as personalities whose works “neither have nor lack sincerity.”
Polonius
He is a character is Hamlet who “has had a moment of self-transcendence, of grace and truth.” Lionel Trilling regards him as a sincere character who espouses ultimate virtues.
Dr. Leavis
He discriminates “those aspects of T.S. Eliot’s work which are sincere and those which are not.” His deductions on T.S. Eliot’s work nurture the apprehension of the concepts of “authenticity and sincerity.”
Raymond Williams
He is the author of Culture and Society, in which he expounds the connotations of words such as “industry, democracy, class, art and culture” which is contributory in modelling judgments concerning the society.
Joseph Conrad
Through his Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad reviews the rendering of ‘European civilization’ through literature.
Diderot
He accredited with Neveu de Rameau which is an outstanding text that elucidates the radical queries regarding existence particularly on the substance of the quintessence of “an honest soul.”
