Reconstructing Criticism: Pope's Essay on Criticism and the Logic of DefinitionThis study aims to bring the modern theory of literary criticism, and Pope's 'Essay on Criticism' of 1711, into a more productive and intersting association than critical-historical structures have generally allowed. Smallwood marks out in current terms and in depth the specialized theoretial and aesthetic problem of defining criticism. He recognizes that criticism, no more than literature or art, cannot be finally codified or defined, but insists on the need for clarity in the exposition of criticism's purposes and a fuller consciousness of a common community of practice available to audiences outside the academic fold. Affirming the unfailing currency and utility of the term criticism as new languages have taken over the critical domain, or have sought to replace or abolish literature, Smallwood distinguishes between the normative definitions that are everywhere apparent in modern theory of criticism, and the advantages to conceptual comprehension achieved by Pope's poetic idea of criticism in the 'Essay'. |
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Page 31
... Nature and Function of Literature in All Its Contexts , and their chapter entitled " The Nature of Literature " conveys an attitude to defining that opens up the concept to include " everything in print . " In another light , they ask ...
... Nature and Function of Literature in All Its Contexts , and their chapter entitled " The Nature of Literature " conveys an attitude to defining that opens up the concept to include " everything in print . " In another light , they ask ...
Page 61
... nature , since its definition includes the question . Its definition is subject matter to itself . We cannot , in other words , draw out of our collective understanding of criticism a stateable definition that corresponds with the sort ...
... nature , since its definition includes the question . Its definition is subject matter to itself . We cannot , in other words , draw out of our collective understanding of criticism a stateable definition that corresponds with the sort ...
Page 151
... Nature , " " Sense , " " Wit , " and " Judgment , " for example ) —but usually with limited explanatory success beyond the formulaic.11 And this difficulty , I should like to argue , is because we have lost the sense of the Essay as a ...
... Nature , " " Sense , " " Wit , " and " Judgment , " for example ) —but usually with limited explanatory success beyond the formulaic.11 And this difficulty , I should like to argue , is because we have lost the sense of the Essay as a ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Introduction | 15 |
Defining LiteratureDefining Criticism | 29 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
academic aesthetic Alexander Pope argued argument Arnold Barthes Cambridge canon chapter cism Collingwood concept of criticism context creative criticism's cultural studies D. H. Lawrence debate Deconstruction defining criticism definition of criticism Definition of Literature discourse discussion distinction Dryden Ellis English Essay on Criticism essence evaluative criticism example exist Ezra Pound F. R. Leavis Faber and Faber fiction Function of Criticism historian history of criticism I. A. Richards idea of criticism interpretation introduction John kind language literary criticism Literary Theory logical London Mason meaning ment Modern Criticism narrative nature object Oxford University Press past philosophy poem poet poetical poetry political Pope's Essay Poststructuralism practice Preface present principle problem propositions question R. G. Collingwood reader relation reprinted Routledge Samuel Johnson seems sense Shakespeare social statements suggest T. S. Eliot Terry Eagleton textual theorists things thought tion valuation Wellek Widdowson word writes
References to this book
A History of Literary Criticism and Theory: From Plato to the Present M. A. R. Habib No preview available - 2005 |