Literature and Its Theorists

Literature and Its Theorists PDF Author: Tzvetan Todorov
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780801495533
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Part history, part confession, part manifesto, Literature and Its Theorists is Tzvetan Todorov's bold statement of what literature is and what criticism should be, and is the final volume in Todorov's trilogy devoted to the theory and tradition of literary criticism, which also includes Theories of the Symbol, and Symbolism and Interpretation. This book represents the contemporary ideological debate in criticism as an opposition between classical dogmatism and modern relativism, or nihilism. Todorov seeks to break out of this paralyzing dichotomy and to achieve a morally committed criticism that offers the possibility of transcending extreme relativism without retreating into dogmatism, of opposing nihilism without ceasing to be an atheist. Todorov undertakes analytical portraits of major writers in four critical traditions: the Russian Formalists and Mikhail Bakhtin; the Germans Alfred Döblin and Bertolt Brecht; Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Blanchot, Roland Barthes, and Paul Bénichou from France; and the Anglo-American critics Northrop Frye and Ian Watt. Asserting that the modern aesthetic is dominated by the Romantic ideology which divorces textual meaning from any reference to truth, Todorov considers how each author's work either remains within or challenges and moves beyond the Romantic framework. Finally, Todorov promotes the idea of criticism as a dialogue in which both author's and critic's voices are allowed to be heard as equals in the pursuit of truth. Through his personal, self-reflexive method which includes "conversations" with Watt and Bénichou, Todorov present Literature and Its Theorists as an example of "dialogic" criticism, and his own critical career as an object of such criticism. He thus offers Literature and Its Theorists as a bildungsroman, an account of his own attempts to think beyond Romanticism through a series of authors with whom he identifies in turn, a yet-to-be concluded novel of his apprenticeship in criticism. This English-language edition concludes with an appendix written in response to reactions to the French edition, two provocative essays that clarify Todorov's perception of traditional literary history, and his assessment of contemporary criticism.

Literature and Its Theorists

Literature and Its Theorists PDF Author: Tzvetan Todorov
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780801495533
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Get Book Here

Book Description
Part history, part confession, part manifesto, Literature and Its Theorists is Tzvetan Todorov's bold statement of what literature is and what criticism should be, and is the final volume in Todorov's trilogy devoted to the theory and tradition of literary criticism, which also includes Theories of the Symbol, and Symbolism and Interpretation. This book represents the contemporary ideological debate in criticism as an opposition between classical dogmatism and modern relativism, or nihilism. Todorov seeks to break out of this paralyzing dichotomy and to achieve a morally committed criticism that offers the possibility of transcending extreme relativism without retreating into dogmatism, of opposing nihilism without ceasing to be an atheist. Todorov undertakes analytical portraits of major writers in four critical traditions: the Russian Formalists and Mikhail Bakhtin; the Germans Alfred Döblin and Bertolt Brecht; Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Blanchot, Roland Barthes, and Paul Bénichou from France; and the Anglo-American critics Northrop Frye and Ian Watt. Asserting that the modern aesthetic is dominated by the Romantic ideology which divorces textual meaning from any reference to truth, Todorov considers how each author's work either remains within or challenges and moves beyond the Romantic framework. Finally, Todorov promotes the idea of criticism as a dialogue in which both author's and critic's voices are allowed to be heard as equals in the pursuit of truth. Through his personal, self-reflexive method which includes "conversations" with Watt and Bénichou, Todorov present Literature and Its Theorists as an example of "dialogic" criticism, and his own critical career as an object of such criticism. He thus offers Literature and Its Theorists as a bildungsroman, an account of his own attempts to think beyond Romanticism through a series of authors with whom he identifies in turn, a yet-to-be concluded novel of his apprenticeship in criticism. This English-language edition concludes with an appendix written in response to reactions to the French edition, two provocative essays that clarify Todorov's perception of traditional literary history, and his assessment of contemporary criticism.

Literary theory

Literary theory PDF Author: Jonathan Culler
Publisher:
ISBN: 019285318X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description


Theory of Literature

Theory of Literature PDF Author: Rene Wellek
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
ISBN: 9781628972832
Category : Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Theory of Literature was born from the collaboration of Ren Wellek, a Vienna-born student of Prague School linguistics, and Austin Warren, an independently minded "old New Critic." Unlike many other textbooks of its era, however, this classic kowtows to no dogma and toes no party line. Wellek and Warren looked at literature as both a social product--influenced by politics, economics, etc.--as well as a self-contained system of formal structures. Incorporating examples from Aristotle to Coleridge, written in clear, uncondescending prose, Theory of Literature is a work which, especially in its suspicion of simplistic explanations and its distrust of received wisdom, remains extremely relevant to the study of literature today.

Theory of Literature

Theory of Literature PDF Author: Paul H. Fry
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300183364
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
Bringing his perennially popular course to the page, Yale University Professor Paul H. Fry offers in this welcome book a guided tour of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. At the core of the book's discussion is a series of underlying questions: What is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose? Fry engages with the major themes and strands in twentieth-century literary theory, among them the hermeneutic circle, New Criticism, structuralism, linguistics and literature, Freud and fiction, Jacques Lacan's theories, the postmodern psyche, the political unconscious, New Historicism, the classical feminist tradition, African American criticism, queer theory, and gender performativity. By incorporating philosophical and social perspectives to connect these many trends, the author offers readers a coherent overall context for a deeper and richer reading of literature.

Theories of Literary Realism

Theories of Literary Realism PDF Author: Dario Villanueva
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791433287
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Realism has not only shaped important schools and periods in literary history, but has also been a fundamental constant of all literature, its first theoretical formulation being the principle of mimesis in Aristotle's Poetics. Realism can be considered by extension one of the main aspects of literary theory, the aims of which must be to define its concepts clearly and to neutralize the imprecision, polysemy, and ambiguity that often characterized the application of realism.

Literary Theory

Literary Theory PDF Author: Johannes Willem Bertens
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415186641
Category : Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This accessible guide provides the ideal first step in understanding literary theory.

The Rebirth of American Literary Theory and Criticism

The Rebirth of American Literary Theory and Criticism PDF Author: H. Aram Veeser
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1785274384
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
The interviewees of this volume fall into three groups: the main players who brought about the rise of theory (Fish, Gallop, Spivak, Bhabha); a younger group of post-theorists (Bérubé, Dimock, Nealon, Warren); the anti-critique theorists (Felski); and new order theorists (Puchner, Wolfe). They discuss elemental questions, such as trying to grasp what was logic and what was rhetoric; trying to see down the road while fog and turmoil held visibility to arm’s length; and trying to pick legible meanings out of the cultural blanket of deafening noise. Theorists were not only good thinkers but also pioneers who were seeking profound transformations.

A History of Literary Criticism

A History of Literary Criticism PDF Author: M. A. R. Habib
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405148845
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 848

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Book Description
This comprehensive guide to the history of literary criticism from antiquity to the present day provides an authoritative overview of the major movements, figures, and texts of literary criticism, as well as surveying their cultural, historical, and philosophical contexts. Supplies the cultural, historical and philosophical background to the literary criticism of each era Enables students to see the development of literary criticism in context Organised chronologically, from classical literary criticism through to deconstruction Considers a wide range of thinkers and events from the French Revolution to Freud’s views on civilization Can be used alongside any anthology of literary criticism or as a coherent stand-alone introduction

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory PDF Author: Irene Rima Makaryk
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802068606
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Book Description
The last half of the twentieth century has seen the emergence of literary theory as a new discipline. As with any body of scholarship, various schools of thought exist, and sometimes conflict, within it. I.R. Makaryk has compiled a welcome guide to the field. Accessible and jargon-free, the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory provides lucid, concise explanations of myriad approaches to literature that have arisen over the past forty years. Some 170 scholars from around the world have contributed their expertise to this volume. Their work is organized into three parts. In Part I, forty evaluative essays examine the historical and cultural context out of which new schools of and approaches to literature arose. The essays also discuss the uses and limitations of the various schools, and the key issues they address. Part II focuses on individual theorists. It provides a more detailed picture of the network of scholars not always easily pigeonholed into the categories of Part I. This second section analyses the individual achievements, as well as the influence, of specific scholars, and places them in a larger critical context. Part III deals with the vocabulary of literary theory. It identifies significant, complex terms, places them in context, and explains their origins and use. Accessibility is a key feature of the work. By avoiding jargon, providing mini-bibliographies, and cross-referencing throughout, Makaryk has provided an indispensable tool for literary theorists and historians and for all scholars and students of contemporary criticism and culture.

The Critical Tradition

The Critical Tradition PDF Author: David H. Richter
Publisher: Bedford/st Martins
ISBN: 9780312101060
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1655

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Book Description
02 The most comprehensive and up-to-date anthology of major documents in literary criticism and theory from Plato to the present, with a highly praised critical apparatus, including introductions, headnotes, bibliographies, and glosses.