Frys theory of literature stands out for a number of reasons that, taken together, make a compelling case for it being the classroom text of choice for lecturers working with advanced students on literary theory. According to him, poetry is an imitation of an action and his tool of enquiry is neither philosophical nor moral. His primary areas of specialization are british romanticism, the history of literary criticism, contemporary literary theory, and literature in relation to the visual arts. By literary theory we refer not to the meaning of a work of literature but to the theories that reveal what literature can mean. Professor fry has been teaching, refining and updating the course of 26 hourlong lectures at yale, which make up this book, for decades back to when.
The econtent uploaded on this website is on literary theory and criticism. Mimetic theory is a concept developed and advocated for by rene girard, 20thcentury french anthropologist. Essentially, literary theories are lenses that a reader can apply in order to view a. One of the marks of genius is to notice something vitally important and seemingly obvious but which never before had been.
It illuminates the unity of the overall agenda of the ethicsliterature discussion in angloamerican moral. Introduction to mimetic theory and pragmatic theory slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. Pdf a critical overview of literary criticism in english. Intended to stimulate research and encourage interdisciplinary dialogue, as well as to introduce prominent european theorists to the american academy, this book series is internationally renowned for its foundational literary scholarship. Pdf genres of discourse and the definition of literature. We opted for a number of selected literary and cultural theories and.
Theory and history of literature 198198 is a landmark event in twentiethcentury critical thought. Literature and literary studyliterature and literary study literature. In book 10 595a608b, he returns to the subject and extends his criticism beyond dramatic imitation to include all poetry and all visual art, on the ground that the arts are only. Theory and history of literature university of minnesota. There are many ways in which criticism may be classified. All literature stems from the mimetic theory developed during the golden age of greece by plato and aristotle.
For this purpose, all these theories treat a work of art as photographic reproduction i. Xxxv by dietmar regensburger, university of innsbruck published in. Writers need literary theory overland literary journal. In memory and literature, renate lachmann combines literary theory with textual analysis in a consideration of some of the major texts of russian modernism.
The earliest known examples of visual art belong to. Introduction to mimetic theory and pragmatic theory. They both address ways of looking at literature beyond the typical plotthemecharactersetting studies. Art imitates idea and so it is imitation of reality. Ability comes with experience, by reading and thinking on a wide range of material, literature and criticism. University of pretoria etd strehler, a 2008 literature. Then the indication of the word literary criticism along with the origin and development of literary criticism has to be examined. Plato rejected poetry as it is mimetic in nature on the moral and philosophical grounds. Literary theories were developed as a means to understand the various ways people read texts.
Thecriticismreacheditspeakduringtimesofeconomictragedy. Memory and literature university of minnesota press. Removing literary theory from writing courses is an antiintellectual move that is ultimately selfdefeating, and it. Historical biographical criticism until well into the 20th century, much of literary study was based on the assumption that to understand a work you need to understand the authors social background, the authors life, ideas circulating during the time the author was writing, what other works influenced the creation of the one under examination, and so on. Xxxix by dietmar regensburger, university of innsbruck published in. In his theory of mimesis, plato says that all art is mimetic by nature. They both address ways of looking at literature beyond the typical plotthemecharacter setting studies. But you dont have to be a scholar or an insider of mimetic theory to understand it. The terms literary theory and critical theory refer to essentially the same fields of study. The mimetic theory of literary criticism places primary importance on how well a literary work imitates life. Its meaning paintings, the earliest identified examples of art belonging to the visual class are often and, quite naturally appreciated in terms of its capability to represent nature, the visible world.
Socrates criticizes the mimetic forms as tending to corrupt performers whose roles may involve expression of passions or wicked deeds, and he bars such poetry from his ideal state. Literary critical theory is a tool that helps you find meaning in. Since plato applied the mimetic theory on literature and separated it from narrative, mimesis has been given a very clear literary meaning. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. Introduction this is the earliest way of judging any work of art in relation to reality whether the representation is accurate verisimilitude or not.
The mimetic theories judge a literary work of art in terms of imitation. A readers guide to contemporary literary theory 5th edition. Reflecting on works by pushkin, dostoevsky, gogol, bely, mandelstam, akhmatova, mayakovsky, nabokov, and lesserknown russian writers, lachmann goes beyond formalist approaches to. Mimetic theory of literary criticism pen and the pad. In this essay both of mcgregors theories on management, theory x and theory y, will have their evolution explained with the differences between the two assumptions described and defined, as well as the relevance that both theory x and theory y have upon management in. According to wellek, the work was written with the idea between warren and himself that we should rather combine our forces to produce a book which would formulate a theory of literature with an emphasis on the aesthetic. This website is the outcome of the project undertaken at department of english, maharaja krishnakumarsinhji bhavnagar university bhavnagar gujarat. Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includesin addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict senseconsiderations of intellectual history, moral philosophy, social prophecy, and other interdisciplinary themes which are of.
On the contrary, aristotle advocated poetry as it is mimetic in nature. Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the. Plato so basically he claims that a writer imitates the imitations and represents imagination and emotion much more than reason and reality. Literary theory does not mean making hypotheses or guesses about literature. Theory and history of literature 198198 is a landmark event in twentieth century critical thought. The proponents of each theory believe their theory is the theory. List of books and articles about feminist literature. Marxist criticism is a strongly politicallyoriented criticism, deriving from the theories of the social philosopher karl marx. Knights language leipzig linguistic literary criticism literary history literary scholarship literary study literary theory literaturwissenschaft london lyric meaning merely metaphor method metonymic metre metrical milton modern myth nature nineteenth century norms novel novelist object parallels paris. To illustrate the necessity of movement from one theory to another, the theories are arranged in the following order. Theory and history of literature university of minnesota press. There is a direct relation between genres of discourse and the definition of literature.
Cuddons dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, we have tried to remain mindful of the fact that we are revising. Literary theory internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Introduction summaries new criticism archetypal criticism psychoanalytic criticism feminist criticism marxist criticism readerresponse criticism cultural studies new historicism deconstruction conclusion. It is or should be the role of creative writing programs to challenge students ideas, to confront and reconsider every assumption a student might hold. The two met at the university of iowa in the late 1930s, and by 1940 had begun writing the book. We use your linkedin profile and activity data to personalize ads and to show you more relevant ads. The target learners are graduate and postgraduate students. Literary critical theory washington state university. In analyzing literary works within a conceptual framework, the student needs the freedom to choose from a variety of critical standpoints and to discover for himself various approaches to the literary symbol. Full text of theory of literature internet archive.
Fry is the william lampson professor of english and has taught at yale since 1971. A theory of literature of 194446, being an influential and comprehensive analysis of the american new criticism movement. Feminist literature feminist literature feminist literature is based on the principles of feminism and includes all literary works centering on a womans struggle for equality and to be accepted as a human being, before becoming a victim of gender stereotypes. In the field of english studies and most academic disciplines, theory refers to the. The first category of mimetic theories forms the oldest and is, according to abrams, the most primitive of the four categories. Literature and moral theory investigates how literature, in the past 30 years, has been used as a means for transforming the angloamerican moral philosophical landscape, which until recently was dominated by certain ways of doing theory. Those theories which are widely used in literary and cultural studies are either introduced or further explored having been introduced in undergraduate modules in theory of literature and elsewhere. The affective theory of stanley fish 265 as they succeed one another in time sca, pp. There are some major critical theories such as mimetic. Mimetic theory originated with rene girard, a french polymath whose seminal insights into the nature of human desire bridges diverse fields such as anthropology, literary criticism, religious studies, psychology, ethnology, sociology, philosophy, and others. Imitation is constant, scapegoating is an everpresent temptation, and violence is wrong. From the very beginnings of mathematical game theory in 1944 or earlier, it seemed likely. Just as a perspective is a way of looking at something, a critical perspective is a way of criticizing or analyzing literature. Mimetic theory s key insight is that human desire is not an autonomous process, but a collective one.
Literary theories session 2 literature and literary study. Craft matters, but so too does originality of thought, of building on knowledge to produce something genuinely new. This project was sponsored by mhrd, new delhi under nmeict sakshat initiatives for econtent development. This is the earliest way of judging any work of art in relation to reality whether the representation is accurate verisimilitude or not.
The weakness of the spatial view, according to fish, is that it imparts a spurious objectivity to the text, giving the false impression that it is simply there. Bibliography of literature on the mimetic theory vol. Platos republic, books iii and x and aristotles poetics. Thefrankfurtschoolthenattemptedtoreconstructthetheorytoenableitto withstandtotalitariancorruption. Theory of mind and literature is a collection of nineteen essays by prominent scholars linguists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers working in the cuttingedge field of cognitive literary studies, which explores how we use theory of mind in reading and understanding literature. Its contents were based on their shared understandings of. From that base comes the pragmatic and expressive theory.
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