Western Classic Literary Theory.doc

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1、A Course for MA StudentsWestern Classic Literary Theory: A Critical IntroductionLi Lansheng, prof. of EnglishLecture One: IntroductionI. Concept of “Literary Theory”1. Literary theory is the body of ideas and methods used in the reading, appreciating, understanding, interpreting, evaluating and crit

2、icizing of literature.2. Literary theory is a description of the underlying principles or tools, by which we understand, evaluate or criticize literature. 3. Literary theory is a system of knowledge in or associated with philosophy.4. Literary theory is sometimes called philosophy of art or aestheti

3、cs.5. There are many kinds of literary theories, from the remote past to the present.6. Any literary theory has its own history of development and therefore enjoys, more or less, a bigger tradition. 7. A literary theory is a perspective (as what the Greek word “theoria” means), from which we attempt

4、 to approach literature.8. Literary theory, in contemporary times, transforms into “critical theory” or “cultural theory.”II. Essential Questions Asked by Literary Theory1. What is literature?Possible answers: 1) writings in general; 2) literary writings in general; 3) literary language; 4) linguist

5、ic foregrounding and deviation; 5)01 linguistic synthesis; 6) fictionality / fictitiousness; 7) the object of literary judgment or aesthetics; 8) a construct of textuality, discourse, intertextuality or self-reflexivity; 9) a means of ideology or thus a tool of destroying it; 10) a kind of cultural

6、capital (cultural voice or cultural message); 11) an imitation of nature and therefore presupposing an ultimate truth and universal values; 12) imaginary and fictitious, thus telling lies and far removed from truth; 13) It has morally desirable effects on the human mind; 14) It both teaches and deli

7、ghts; 15) It enlightens and overflows with powerful emotions; 16) It helps to establish or subvert ideology. . 2. What are the major forms of literature?1) poetry; 2) drama; 3) fiction; 4) non- fiction; 5) essay; 3. How does literature come?There might be many answers: 1) Literature comes with the d

8、evelopment of productivity to a certain stage. 2) Literature comes with the development of human consciousness. 3) Levels of material production determine the emergence of literature. 4) The birth of literature largely depends upon human demands for spiritual production. III. Literary Theory and Cri

9、ticismThe relationship between literary theory and literary criticism has often evoked our thinking about the nature of the former and the relevance of the latter. Generally speaking, there are several kinds of views regarding the distinctions between the two.1. Literary theory is a philosophy of li

10、terature (and probably also arts), which concerns the general laws or principles of literature proper or sometimes of arts in a general sense. It tends to answer the questions of what literature is, what truth literature can reveal, what universal values literature will possibly possess, what transc

11、endental source literature is rooted in or what makes literature literary, etc. Whereas literary criticism mainly involves such categories as literary appreciation, literary judgment, literary interpretation or whatever is linked with critical practices in the sphere of literary readings that can be

12、 appropriately carried out by critics, readers or literary teachers in their profession. Therefore, there seems to be a clear-cut division between the two. This opinion was pervasive before the 20th century.2. Since the late of the 19th century, the clear distinction between the literary theory and

13、literary criticism has begun to diminish, owing to a flowering of multifarious human and social sciences. The beginning of the 20th century saw a gradual convergence of the two, shaking the traditional conceptual foundations on which the established dichotomy had been based between the pure philosop

14、hical traits of theory and the practical essentials of criticism. The result of this is that literary theory becomes critical theory or vice versa. So in contemporary literary studies and criticism there appears a tendency for the primacy of critical theory which absorbs all sorts of intellectual ac

15、hievements concerning philosophical, cultural, economic, political, sociological, ethnic, anthropological, religious, linguistic fields. It is obvious that contemporary literary critical theory is a discipline that aims at a intertextual synthesis of manifold aspects. Some critics say that the 20th

16、century is a criticism dominated age characterized by theoretical diversity and cultural hybridity, a context in which the traditional and the new, the western and eastern, the native and the cosmopolitan all mingle and interact to form a compact whole.IV. Abrams Four Coordinates of Literary Theorie

17、suniverse(mimetic)author (expressive)work/textaudience(pragmatic)work/text(objective)1. Mimetic1) Mimetic theory concerns the relationship between work and universe.2) Mimetic theory is the most primitive aesthetic theory.3) Literature or art is regarded as “essentially an imitation of aspects of th

18、e universe.”4) Arts of painting, poetry, music, dancing and sculpture are all imitations.5) Literature or art reflects the universal truth of the world.6) Realist criticism is an example of mimetic theory.2. Pragmatic1) Pragmatic theory deals with the relationship between work and audience.2) Pragma

19、tic theory emphasizes the effects of literature or art upon its audience. 3) Literature or art serves to teach and delight or for other purposes.4) Classicism or neo-classicism is a pragmatic criticism.5) Reader-response or receptionist theory is a modern extension of pragmatic criticism.6) Socialis

20、t realism is a “wedding” of mimetic and pragmatic criticism.3. Expressive1) Expressive theory handles the relationship between author and work.2) Expressive theory places importance upon the intentional, psychological or emotional aspects of the author who “fathers” a piece of literary or artistic w

21、ork. 3) Literature or art is “essentially the internal made external, resulting from a creative process operating under the impulse of feeling, and embodying the combined product of the poets perceptions, thoughts, and feelings.”4) Expressive criticism is a kind of subjective criticism.5) Romanticis

22、t criticism is expressive.6) Psychoanalytical criticism is a modern extension of expressive criticism.4. Objective1) Objective theory emphasizes the integrity and autonomous status of the work itself.2) Objective theory isolates the work from all “external points of reference,” such as audience, aut

23、hor or external reality.3) A work of art is considered as a “self-sufficient entity constituted by its parts in their internal relations.” It has its own cosmos.4) Russian Formalism and New Criticism are largely based on objective theory.5) Structuralism and Deconstruction are also derivatives of ob

24、jective theory. V. Types of Western Classic Literary Theories1. Literary theory in classical times: 1) Rhetorical criticism; 2) Plato and Neo-Platonism; 3) Aristotle; 4) Horace; 5) Longinus2. Literary theory in the Middle Ages: allegorical exegesis3. The rise and fall of Neoclassicism: 1) the questi

25、on of language (Dante, du Bellay); 2) the idealizing strain (Giraldi, Sidney); 3) the Italian Aristotelians (Minturno, Scaliger, Castelvetro); 4) Neoclassicism and the purification of language (Montaigne, Malherbe); 5) French Neoclassical theory (Boileau, Bouhours, Rapin, Pope, Johnson); 6) the Brit

26、ish version of Neoclassicism (Jonson, Dryden, Johnson, Addison); 7) British theory in the age of sensibility (Johnson, Young, Joseph Warton, Thomas Warton, Hurd, Edmund Burke); 8) Vico, Diderot, Lessing4. Romantic literary theory: 1) Herder and the spirit of time (Schiller, Friedrich Schlegel, Hegel

27、); 2) the influence of Kant (Schelling, Coleridge, Goethe, Schiller, Schopenhauer); 3) the organic principle (A. W. Schlegel, Coleridge, Schelling, Goethe); 4) the role of the critic (Herder, Friedrich Schlegel, Schleiermacher); 5) some British themes (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley); 6) Sain

28、t-Beuve, Emerson, Poe5. Social theories of the 19th Century: 1) Belinsky and three radicals (Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Pisarev); 2) Mathew Arnold; 3) the beginnings of sociological criticism: Taine and Marx6. Naturalism, Symbolism and Modernism: 1) French Naturalists (Flaubert, Zola, the

29、 Goncour brothers); 2) French Symbolists (Gautier, Baudelaire, Marlarm, Valry); 3) British Aestheticism and Henry James (Pater, Wilde); 4) Modernism and the avant-garde; 5) Hume and Pound; 6) T. S. Eliot7. New developments in theory: 1) Nietzsche; 2) Saussure; 3) Marxism and literary theoryVI. Requi

30、rements of the Course1. Participants in this course should take active parts in thinking, discussion, presentation and any other activity required. 30% of the final grades will be given according to their achievements in these activities in class. 2. Those who have chosen this course are required to

31、 attend each lecture, except for some understandable reasons. 10% of the final grades will be given in terms of the rate of their attendance.3. Those who have chosen this course are required to take a final examination at the close of the course. 60% of the final grades will be given according to th

32、eir performance in the exam. VII. Text Book and ReferencesHarland, Richard, Literary Theory from Plato to Barthes: An Introductory History (Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2005)Selden, Raman, The Theory of Criticism from Plato to the Present (London: Longman Group Limited, 198

33、8)Wimsatt, William K. Jr, and Cleanth Brooks, Literary Criticism: A Short History (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970)Lecture Two: Literary Theory in Classical TimesIn this lecture, we will mainly discuss Greek and Roman thoughts, which mark the earliest prosperity and maturation of western philos

34、ophy. In ancient Greece, such representatives of great masters of thinking as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are distinctive landmarks in literary theorization as well as in philosophy. Their contributions to western literary theory are quite significant, exerting ever-lasting influence upon the subs

35、equent ages. I. The Origin of Literary Theory1. Evaluative stance on the part of the audience as well as of the judges in ancient Greek drama competition marks the beginning of a critical stance, which is often regarded as the rise of earlier literary theory.2. This evaluative stance apparently show

36、s an emphasis on the active role played by the audience in watching the performances in drama festivals. 3. It is the earliest affective theory which stresses the transaction between work and audience.II. Rhetorical Criticism1. The study of rhetoric is the primary requirement for the educated Greeks

37、, therefore, how to make a persuasive speech is the major concern in oratory. 2. Rhetoric criticism lays stress on literary techniques: rhythm, diction and figurative language skills of all kinds (for example, tropes and figures).3. In the first century BC, two important systems of classification be

38、come established: 1) system of stylistic registers: grand style (strong emotion and elevated language), moderate style (quiet but not simple) and plain style (quiet and simple); 2) system of tropes and figures (“A trope is a deviation from the normal use of an individual word, while a figure is a de

39、viation from the normal arrangement of words or sequence of thoughts.).4. Rhetoric criticism emphasizes details at the expense of large wholes, so “Rhetorical criticism converges with literary criticism mainly on the local level of linguistic expression.”5. “The traditional separation of form and co

40、ntent is above all a tradition of rhetorical criticism.” 6. Representatives of rhetoric critics mainly include the Sophists, Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian.7. Rhetoric criticism “preserves its heritage for twelve hundred years after the Fall of the Roman Empire.” III. Plato1. As a student of Socra

41、tes, Plato has passed down much of Socrates philosophical thinking, quite different from the School of rhetoric which is more practical rather than theoretical. 2. Plato, like all other ancient Greek philosophers, is an “all-round” thinker, who thinks on all topics. Poiesis (the Greek word meaning “

42、to make”) is also one of his concern in many areas to be discussed in his Republic. His theory of poesy is thoroughly examined in Books II, III and X.3. Poetry is imitation (mimesis). “Poetical imitation imitates men performing actions either forced or voluntary.”4. According to Plato, mimesis is th

43、e imitation of the “speech of a character directly reproduced,” while diegesis is a “narration of doings and sayings where the poet speaks in his own person, and does not try to turn our attention in another direction by pretending that someone else is speaking. ” Thus, he distinguishes speech from

44、narration, marking the earliest attempt for the object of narratology. 5. Platos three worlds: 1) world of Idea (sphere of underlying abstractions and pertaining to universal truth); 2) world of appearance (world of perceptual appearances); 3) world of art (represented by painting). In Platos unders

45、tanding, the source of ultimate truth is in the world of Idea, of which the other two worlds are only shadows. The world of appearance is nothing but an “imperfect imitation” of the world of Idea (now the sphere of the reality of abstractions). The world of art is an imitation of the world of appear

46、ance (imitation of imitation) and further away from the truth and thus tells only lies, quite unlike philosophy which represents universal truth.6. The poet “waters” the passions of his audience, leading them into madness, and thus should be driven out of the republic.IV. Aristotle1. A student of Pl

47、atos, Aristotle is less absolute and more interested in describing and classifying. He develops Platos theoretical thinking of poiesis in his monumental work Poetics.2. He thinks also that poetry is an imitation of human action. To imitate is an in-born instinct characteristic of humans. He approves

48、, quite unlike Plato, such a natural human impulse.3. Quite different from Plato, Aristotle believes that poetry represents “a higher kind of truth,” that is, “not the reporting of factual details but the understanding of underlying generalities.” So poetry is different from history and shares much in common with philosophy, for “Poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history; for while poetry is concerned with universal truths, history treats of particular facts.” 4. Poetry should be about “probable impossibilities” rather than “improbable possibi