( INTRODUCTION I

INTRODUCTION

The word criticism is derived from the Greek word meaning judgement. Ety-

mology says that its practical end in view is the making ofjudgements; without speci-

fying the grounds on which judgement is to be made, one cannot proceed to that end.

This required it to say what the thing is that it judges. The answer is that it judges the

merits of a particular work of art.

If one applies the principle of over-simplification, the definition of literary criti-

cism reduces itself to the shortest form - the application of the principles of criticism

to literature. Criticism refers to the conscious process ofjudging the quality of two or

more poems, novels or dramas, with respect to the theme or quality of the art in any

mode i.e. the linguistic aspect, richness of imagination, flow of thoughts or a combi-

nation of all creative products and a higher mental process. A poet writes his poetry

with a message of humanity to develop the personality on the whole. The critic guides

the poet's poetic behaviour who in turn guides a multitude of readers. Though poetry

and criticism are viewed as different entities, they can be correlated.

In the present century, F.W.Bateson made a significant contribution to literary

criticism in general and to historical and sociological criticism in particular. An at-

tempt is made to reaffirm and consolidate Bateson's contribution to literary criticism.

Xt is also felt that a peep into the history of literary criticism with a clear comprehen-

sion can provide a help to the researcher in the field.

M.H.Abrarns summed up the theories of literary criticism and classified them

into categories. The criteria of classification is based on the relative emphasis placed

on the four components - the art, the maker, the subject and the audience. The differ-

ence among various theories of art lies largely in the varying emphasis that is placed

on one or more of the four elements. This will help the critic in analyzing a work of

art, Explaining this M.H.Abrams says, "That is, a critic tends to derive from one of

these terms his principal categories for defining, classifying, and analyzing a work of

art, as well as the major criteria by which he judges its value."' The four theories are:

the mimetic theory, the pragmatic theory, the expressive theory and the objective theory.

The Greek work 'mimesis' has two meanings when translated into English-

imitation and representation. M.H.Abrams calls this theory as a work of art itself.

Plato maintains that the essence of any work of art is that it repesents or imitates some

part of the universe. Aristotle defines poetry as imitation and the objects the imitator

represents are actions. Each art follows the laws of its own being, in its mode of

imitation. Thus Aristotle's 'Poetics' established mimetic doctrine. This theory domi-

nated the scene mostly until the eighteenth century, entered partly into the nineteenth

century and in our time, the enthusiasm has died down. It is primarily oriented from

work to audience. The first classic of English criticism - Sir Philip Sidney's "The

Apologie for Poetry" proves the nature and consequences of this change of direction.

The second category - the pragmatic theory came into existence during the

Renaissance. As the name itself suggests, the central theme of this theory is that the

work of art is chiefly a means to an end, an instrument for getting something done. In

this theory, the focus of interest shifted from the universe to the audience. Bateson

emphasizes this fact stating that the essence of poetry lies only in the poet-reader

relationship. He goes on to say that without the reader's co-operation, the poem might

not exist. The finaI goal of this theory is to give pleasure and instruct or edify the

audience. M.H.Abrams says: "The pragmatic orientation ordering the aim of the artist

and the character of the work to the nature, the needs, and the springs of pleasure in the

audience, characterised by far the greatest part of criticism from the time of Horace

through the eighteenth cen t~ry . "~

1. M.H.Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp : Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition (London: Oxford University Press, 1960), p.6

2. Jbid. pp 20-2 1.

Bateson's opinion is that the poem derives its meaning from the original mean-

ing it had to the audience to whom it was addressed. By the nineteenth century, the

emphasis on the audience lost its grip and the innate capacities of the maker came into

limelight. What is designated as expressive theories came into existence during this

part of the century. M.H.Abrams summarized its characteristic feature thus : "A work

of art is essentially the internal made external, resulting from a creative process oper-

ating under the impulse of feeling, embodying the combined product of the poet's

perceptions, thoughts and feeling^."^ Wordsworth's 'Preface' to the "Lyrical Ballads"

(1 800) is a document which signalizes the displacement of the mimetic and pragmatic

theories by the expressive view of art in English criticism.

John Crowe Ransom called for a recognition of the autonomy of the work itself

as existing for its own sake. Even Rene Wellek and Austin Warren propose to deal

with a poem independent of extrinsic factors. This is the stance expressed by all the

new critics but Bateson's argument is that no work of art is autonomous.

Every century in the history of the globe is being influenced by a certain ideol-

ogy, which may be religious, economical, psychological, historical or sociological. In

the interpretation of any literary work of art, a critic has to apply to any one of these

factors.

Psychological Tendency

The relationship between psychology and literary criticism is an old discipline.

The influence of psychology upon the creation and criticism of art is never a point for

debate. The influence is obvious and need not be established, for the subject matter is

common- experiences, emotions, catharsis, feelings, sentiments, subjectivity, language

and aesthetics. Psychology has its bearing on poetry, theatre and criticism.

3. M.H.Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp : Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition (London: Oxford University Press, 1960), p.22

3

The influence of several schools of psychology such as depth psychology, Ge-

stalt psychology and individual psychology is felt on literary criticism in accurate

correspondence. The depth psychology is the name given to that school of psychology

which tries to explain human behaviour by exploring the unconscious mind. The most

remarkable new psychological influence came from Sigmund Freud and C.G.Jung.

Freud's main concern was with the unconscious mind and the sex-urge or libido which

plays a paramount role in human life. As a result of moral censor, the sex-urge often

repressed and leads to neurosis. The best way to avoid neurosis is to sublimate the

libids is art. Thus, according to Freud, poetry and other fine arts are only sublimated

manifestations of the erotic instinct. This Freudian concept has entered into literary

criticism and several attempts were made in the thirties to analyse the classics on

psycho-analytical lines, a notable example being Ernest-Jone's analysis of

Shakespeare's Hamlet. Jung's theory regarding the collective unconscious and recur-

rent motives has influenced criticism; the psycho-analytical critics seek to explain the

phenomenon of poetry, how it is born and how it unfolds its full potentialities. This

method of psychological analysis is used by Noman Holland and Leslie Fiedler. Ge-

stalt psychology has also been helpfbl in the formulation of some theories about form.

Herbert Read, a poet-crikc, uses Gestalt psychology which lays emphasis on under-

standing the psychological phenomena by giving importance to organisation (whole)

rather than parts. Phenomenology is a school of thought which explains human

behaviour attaching weight to the immediate experience of the individual. Georges

Poulet embraces this phenomenological existential outlook.

The subtle differences between psychological and sociological tendencies is

that psychology emphasizes on the study of the individual while that of sociology on

society. They are not contradictory but on the other hana complementary. It is a well-

known fact that individuals constitute a society and hence the study of individuals

contributes to the study of society and the vice-versa is also true.

If one considers the triangle consisting of the writer, the work and the reader in

the context of literary criticism one can see the first and the last to be tangible ones,

connected through the intangible. It is this which forms the media and platform for

the coding and decoding of experiences, feelings, attitudes, emotions, sentiments and

catharsis of the coder to the decoder. In fact, literary criticism analyses, judges and

appreciates the effectiveness of coding and its feasibility of de-coding with one-to-

one correspondence. Thus the psyc%logical tendency of literary criticism attacks the

problem of comprehending literary criticism from the writer to the reader keeping in

view all the sociological factors.

Historical Tendency

The historical tendency received explicit and emphatic statements in the nine-

teenth century in the writings of two Frenchmen: CharIes Augustin Saint-Beuve and

Hippolyte-Adolphe Taine. The historical tendency is perceived as the hand-maiden of

history. Taine writes: "We might recover, from the monuments of literature, a knowl-

edge of the manner in which men thought and felt centuries ago."4 The researcher

feels that reconstruction of history is possible to some extent from a study of litera-

ture.

The historical critic, studies the work in the light of the author's life and mate-

rial circumstances. He views the work as of an age, an expression of the culture in

which it was composed. Thomas Waiton, the founder of historical criticism5 realized

the importance of reconstructing a poet's environment and the conditions under which

he worked, in order to judge his poetry. For an historical critic, the work and the man

are inseparable. Many historians believe that if one is to understand a poet, one must

4. Hippoiyte Taine, "History of English Literature" in Literary Criticism: An Introductory Reader ed. Lionel Trilling (New York: Bolt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc,1970), p.212.

5 . PMLA vo1.30 (1915) p. 87

ui~derstand him as the product of his age; one must consider the audience also in order

to respond to him.For Bateson, poetry embodies, typifies and somehow summarizes

the society of its time.

Writing about the central doctrine of the historical criticism, Sheldon Norman

Grebstein, an editor of critical essays says, ".... that no literary work can be approached

as though it a-ere complete in itself. Rather, each work must be studied with reference

to its dossier, that is, the entire body of information pertinent to it."6

Historical investigation proliferated at an ever increasing rate and concerned

itself not only with the great manifest events of nations, with wars, and the succession

of rulers and their dynasties but also with social and economic arrangements, with

religion and the moral code, with manners and customs, and with philosophy and art.

Bateson argues that a good poem should constitute a concrete social situation compa-

rable to the fanliliar facts of history books like the Battle of Hastings or the Execution

of Charles I.

Bateson adds a new dimension to historical criticism stating that the validity of

a work of art can be correlated to the understanding of some specific audience. The

audience may be different depending on sex and profession. Then the work of art will

try to identify the feelings and historical background of the elite audience of a particu-

lar period.

Sociological Tendency

The sociological tendency concerns itself less with the biography of its author,

but more in extending its horizons to the social, economic, and political implications

leading to moral and cultural implications.

6. S.N.Grebstein, Perspectives in Contemporary Criticism (London: Harper & -Row publishers, 1968), p. 2.

S.N.Grebsteinls conception of sociological tendency is: "The literary work cannot

be fully or mruly understood apart from the milieu or culture or civilization in which it

was produced. It must be studied in the widest possible context rather than by itself."'

in this aspect, Grebstein and Bateson seem to follow the principle advocated by Taine

that a reader can recover from the moments of literature a knowledge of the manner in

\;t hlch men thought and felt centuries age. The interpretation of a work of art should

not be attempted in isolation. The literary work should be sensitive to reflect even

sugle and cultural changes. The mediator role of the critic is always appreciated if he

selects facts from the past so as to suit the present.

Historians of literary criticism have suggested that the eighteenth century theo-

ries of Vico, a Neapolitan Philosopher and Herder, a socio-cultural critic, were sources

for socio-cultural criticism. Plato maintained that literature is expressive of its society

and its dominant ideas. The direct sources of contemporary socio-cultural tendencies

of the nineteenth century can be seen in the writings of Hippolyte Taine, Karl Marx

and Engels.

Marxist critics like Georg Lukacs and Granville Hicks are regarded as the most

influential and controversial critics for they approached a literary work, taking the

sociological aspects into consideration. They tend to evaluate human action against its

immediate social atmosphere. Mam feels that mind is always being impressed, influ-

enced and changed by the changes in society and the material conditions. The sociolo-

gists and Marxists, therefore, believe literature to be an expression of society. The

relations between society and literature are considered to be reciprocal. The people

responsible for the main source of inspiration for Marxist criticism are Georg Lukacs,

7 . S.N.Grebstein, Perspectives in Contemporary Criticism, (London: Harper & Row Publish- ers, 1968), p. 164.

7

a Hungarian, Ralph Fox, an Englishman and George Plekhanov and Luna Charsky,

the Russians.

Priscilla B.Clark sees the sociological analysis of literature as a valuable supple-

ment to other approaches and not as a substitute for them. By studying a literary work

in the context of sociological phenomena, the critic hopes to gain a fuller understand-

ing of the work, of the phenomena of both. William Charvat, is another well-known

exponent of socioiogical tendency. He describes a triangle consisting of the author,

reader and publisher, each influencing and being influenced by the others. As one

reads a novel, a story, a poem or a drama, one no longer feels that the characters

depicted therein are isolated beings. They become part and parcel of a vast social

phenomena. Sociological tendency has excelled in two areas where formalism has

fallen short : in the treatment of comparative literature and in the criticism of the

novel. Bateson states: "It is that the historical-sociological approach alone provides

the critic with a factual structure to which he can attach his perceptions and

general is at ion^."^

"The Dickens World" by Humphry House gives accounts of the changing

historical scenes in Dicken's days. It shows the connection between what Dickens

wrote and the times in which he wrote. Critics who write on Chaucer will usually

relate Troilus, one of the characters, to certain features in the contemporary society.

It is generally believed that Shakespeare wrote his plays more for the stage than for

reading.

William Blake made his great protest against the mechanistic materialism and

the hypocrisy that he could see in the society of the last years of the eighteenth cen-

tury. Another instance is those of the sonnets and odes of William Wordsworth coming

8. F.W.Bateson, English Poetry : A Critical Introduction, (London: Longmans), 1950, p.258.

under the heading "Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty" and "The

French Revolution". In the Victorian age too, Lord Alfred Tennyson represented the

society of his age.

After a review of the field of literary criticism, the following objectives are

chosen for study.

i . To re-affirm Bateson's historical and sociological tendencies.

2. To consolidate and evaluate the theories of Bateson.

3. To correlate the principles of Bateson's literary criticism to my study and to Bateson's

study of the various works of poets such as - Alexander Pope, William Blake and

William Wordsworth.

The.thesis is organized into hvo parts : Part I evaluates and establishes the

principles of literary criticism of Bateson. -. and Part I1 relates to applied criticism; ie.

the application of Bateson's principles to the literary works of three poets- William

L~'ordswort11, William Blake and Alexander Pope. Part I consists of an introduction

balanced by summary and conclusion in Part 11. The break-up of the chapters is as

follo\vs:

In the introductory chapter, poetry and criticism are defined, followed by a

discussion of the historical development and theories of literary criticism. Bateson's

contribution to historical and socioiogical tendencies are also touched upon.

In the first chapter, Bateson's definition and concept of historical and socio-

logical tendencies are discussed in detail.

In the second chapter, Bateson's argument over the difference between prose

and poetry and the importance of language and linguistics to literary criticism and the

debate between Roger Fowler and Bateson are studied.

In the succeeding three chapters, the works of three poets - William Wordsworth,

William Blake and Alexander Pope are taken up for study. Bateson's principles on

literary criticism have been correlated to my study and to Bateson's study of these

three poets.

The third chapter analyses some of the poems of Pope representing the follies

and comption prevalent in British Society at that time . Though Pope is considered a

neo- classicist, some of his poems, including his satires, do have socio- historic con-

texts and they are studied considering Bateson's views on such a theme.

In the fourth chapter, Blake's three poems - "London" and the two poems on

"The Chimney Sweeper" are analyzed in detail in the context of London society. A

few other minor poems are also taken up for study.

Chapter five analyzes the qualities and causes of Wordsworth's life which led

him to become the poet and the man. Chapter six explores his men and his society and

focuses its attention on poems such as "Lyrical Ballads" and "The Prelude".

The concluding chapter summarizes the salient features of Bateson as a liter-

ary-critic in the context of twentieth century criticism.

1 SECTION A

1 CHAPTER - 1 1

HISTORICAL AND SOCfOLOClCAL CRlTlClSM OF F.W.BATESON

Historical and Sociological criticism is one of the two chapters which deals

with the theoriticai aspects of the research topic under study. Literature may be de-

fined as an independent utterance stated by an individual reflecting the prevailing

conditions within that society.

History is not merely the words on a page, not the events taking place in the

li\-es of kings or prime ministers; but history is the sweat, blood, tears and triumphs of

the common people. If literature is to be understood as one of the fundamental mani-

festations of human knowledge and experience, it has to be granted the independent

status of an art. Such an art tries to establish a totality of meaning which represents one

of the touchstones for the validity and value of art.

Modem literary criticism is characterized by varied theories and movements,

namely, sociological, historical, psycho-analytical, biographical and semantic. These

approaches will enlarge and deepen the student's appreciation of the content of what

he has read and understood. This would enable him to analyse the language and litera-

ture of a foreign country in close relation to its history, institutions and thought.

In this chapter, the researcher takes up for discussion the historical and socio-

logical aspects of criticism of Bateson because his critical theories have been applied

to the literary works of Alexander Pope, William Blake and William Wordsworth in

the succeeding chapters.

The true aim of literary criticism is to enliven the reader's response to the text

by drawing historical elements that could not have been otherwise understood; it is

not only to create an understanding of the past but also to deepen the relationship

between the reader and the literary text.

The poet and his audience must be in contact with each other in a society.

Bateson argues that only then, can there be a standard of poetic taste. He feels that

there is a danger in a reader, to mistranslate an older English author, so as to adjust

himself to what he has read in a modem context. The process has been defended by

T.S.Eliot in the essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" : "No poet, no artist of

any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the ap-

preciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone,

you must set him for contrast and comparison, among the dead."' Bateson points out

that literary history at its best resists, as far as possible, such encroachments of the

present upon the past.

The study of a work of art is made by attempting to account for the circum-

stances of its time and place. Literary ideas are shaped by the great ideas of the author's

time such as the political party, the church, the military and the school which contrib-

ute considerably to literature.

Edmund Wilson defines historical criticism thus : "Historical interpretation of

literature is the interpretation of literature in its social, economic and political as-

pects".' Historical Criticism is also defined as the criticism that tries to read past

works of literature in the way in which they were read when they were new. Historical

criticism is one of the fundamental critical approaches which aims at placing a literary

work in its historical context and in assigning it to a particular school of thought.

Thomas Warton, an historical critic, believes that no work of art should be judged by

isolating it from the conditions under which it was produced. In order to judge a work

1. T.S.Eliot, Selected Essays (London : Faber and Faber Ltd., MCML 11), p. 15. 2. Edmund Wilson, "Historical Interpretation of Literature", in Twentieth Century Criticism :

The Major Statements ed. William J.Handy and Max Westbrook (New York : The Free Press, 1974), p.3 18.

ofan, one must reconstruct the author's environment. There is also a need to look back

into the customs and manners prevalent during the age of the author.

Bateson complains that there has been no adequate English edition of any of

the major poets like Chaucer, Spencer, Donne, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Gray, or d lake

with one or two exceptions, since 1912. Bateson observes that the modem reader

either doesn't need notes or he is not interested in the kind of information that the notes

provide.

Bateson takes as examples Blake's "Milton" and Marvell's "To His Coy Mis-

tress" to show the necessity of notes in any edition. He argues that Blake's "Milton"

and "And did those feet in ancient time" cannot be understood by men and women

xvho read them. The modem reader would be helpless, unless it is explained to him in

a note. Similarly, Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" ends with a metaphor,

which is far from easy to grasp, says Bateson. C.Day Lewis visualizes two lovers

feverishly trying to squeeze an Indian rubber ball through the bars of an iron-gate.

Bateson suspects the ball to be a cannon-ball. In such a case, the poem needs a foot-

note because one cannot expect a modem reader to know the seventeenth century

meaning of 'ball'.

Bateson puts forth his argument in a question form : If we can read the Elizabe-

than dramatists today without undue difficulty, whom have we to thank ? - the critic or

the historian. He differentiates between a literary historian and a literary critic. The

job of a literary historian is to record the differences betwen one group of generation

of poets and its successors or predecessors. The literary critic's job is to say which

poems are good and what their merits are.

According to Bateson, literary criticism is an aesthetic value-judgement, com-

paring one poem with another, whereas literary history is a recovered literary fact. He

contrasts two types of propositions : the formula for Type I might be "A derives from

U". Type li could be reduced to "A is better than B" or even "A is good". He says that

i t is because of this difference, criticism has a subjective bias and history, an objective

bias. F.R.Leavis answers these assumptions of Bateson thus: The proposition "A de-

rives from B", Leavis says, could be sucessfully attempted only by a critic and would

then be essentially criticism. There has been a battle about this between Bateson and

Leavis which was published in the "Importance of ScrutinyH3, edited by Eric Bentley.

tioxtiever, later, Bateson was reconciled to the fact, that both were right upto a point -

or- both were wrong. He says, "It was an argument around a hen-egg p r i ~ r i t y . " ~

In the field of literary criticism, the historical point of view,came to its first

cornplete blossom in the work of the French critic Adolph Hippolyte Taine, in the

middle of the nineteenth century. The whole school of historians, namely, Michelet,

Renan and Saint-Beuve had engaged themselves in interpreting the book in terns of

their historical origins. But, Taine was the first of the critics who attempted to apply

these principles systematically and on a larger scale, in a work devoted exclusively to

literature. Taine made the famous pronouncement: "Three different sources contrib-

ure to produce this elementary moral state-Race, Surroundings and EpochH5 It is mi-

lieu, or what we call social surroundings, which for all practical purposes means the

study of society for literary appreciation. Taine thought that he was a scientist and a

mechanist. The procedure that Taine actually followed was to pretend to set the stage

for the experiment by describing the moment, the race and the milieu.

3. Eric Bentley, The Importarlce of Scrutiny (New York : New York University Press, 1964), pp.96- 100.

4. F.W. Bateson, "The Scrutiny Phenomenon" in Sewanee Review Vo1.85 ( 1 977), p. 148.

5 . Adolph Hippolfie Taine, "History of English Literature" (1 863), trans.H.Van Laun.Edinburgh. (1871) in Twentieth Century Criticism : The Major Statements ed. William J.Handy and Max Westbrook (New York : New York University Press, 1974), p.3 13.

Hateson adds a new dimension to historical criticism stating that the validity of

a u ork of art can be correlated to the understanding of some historically specific audi-

ence. in a particular period of history, there may not be one fixed audience but a large

gathering of audience depending on class, sex and profession. Bateson feels that it is

only then that a work of art can project the feelings and historical background of the

elire audience. The Function of the critic lies in understanding the readers whom the

poet intended to address.

According to Bateson, poetry in any of its normal manifestations, involves four

factors: "(i) the poet, (ii) his readers (iii) a common language and (iv) a literary tradi-

tion shared by the poet and his reader^."^ He is of the opinion that if any one of these

four factors is removed, poetry ceases to be possible. Bateson gives us examples of

authors who concentrated on only one of the factors; S.T.Coleridge and Shelley con-

centrated only on the poet, whereas Pater and Symons concentrated on the reader

alone; but Bateson argues that the essence of poetry lies only in the poet-reader rela-

tionship. John Keats was never attentive of the audience; he wrote merely for the sake

of writing and only the mid-nineteenth century readers read more of his works than

any of his contemporaries.

Bates011 also emphasizes that some knowldege of the history of the language

and an acquaintance with social and economic history are highly desirable facts. In the

study of literature, the attempts of historical re-construction has led to a great way on

the intention of the author. Bateson wanted to defend his view against the remarks of

Leavis who argued that historical reconstruction is impossible and undesirable and

that the critic cannot help judging by present day criteria. The idea of Bateson that the

6. F.W. Bateson, English Poetry : A Critical Introduction (London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1950), p.65.

intention of the author is the proper subject of literary histoly, is not accepted by

critics like Cleanth Brooks, W.K.Wimsatt and R.S.Crane. Bateson labelled as obvious

nonsense the idea of forbidding any attention to any author's other writings, his biog-

raphy or the social order to which he belonged. The New Critics argue that the total

meaning of a work of art cannot be defined in terms of its meaning for the author and

his contemporaries. This is because the work of art does not remain unchanged through

thc course of history. Its structure changes throughout the process of history while

passing through the minds of readers, critics and fellow writers. The process of inter-

pretation, criticism and appreciation is never complete at any time. It is rather a pro-

cess of accretion, i.e., the history of its criticism felt by its readers in many ages.

Yet, Bateson is convinced that it is possible and valuable to recapture the origi-

nal meaning of a work of art. He accepts the criterion of authorical 'intention' and in

rnany contexts rejects the 'intentional fallacy' formulated by W.K.Wimsatt and Mon-

roc. C-Beardley. Quentin Skinner urges: "The historians should endeavour to estab-

lish the meaning of a particular text by recovering the intentions of the author and the

context in which he wrote."' Bateson produces examples which show the relevance of

biography even for an interpretation of Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale" and for an under-

standing of Housman's poems in order to demonstrate the fallacy of the Intentional

Fallacy in "Essays in Critical Dissentv8.

Sociology of literature may best be regarded as an extension of literary history

to include an account of the innumerable connections which can be discovered be-

tween literature and social life. Sociology can be considered at least as a science, if not

7 . Martin Coyle (eds.) Encyclopaedia of Literature and Criticism (1990; London : Routledge, 1991), p.943.

8. F.W. Uateson, Essays in Critical Dissent, (London : Longman, 1972), p.88-114.

as a forrn;itl~c science. lnqui~y into the structure of a society at a given period of

history, into the modes of behaviour that result from the structure, yields genuine

knonledgc. One has to bring historical or social factors, principles or poetics and

clements of interpretation whether we interpret a single poem or study the complete

isorks of an author.

Literature must be understood in relation to historical and social reality. Marx-

ist writers believe literature as an expression of society. The characters in a novel or

drama bcconle part and parcel of a vast social phenomena because the characters por-

tray the cultural values and economic conditions prevalent in the society. One needs

the assistance of a social historian to explain to us what a work of art is. Christopher

Caudwell analyses the course of English poetry taking into consideration, the eco-

nomic and political developments. He feels that the study of literature and the study of

society are inextricably intertwined. Art is the product of society and to stand outside

art is to stand inside society.

Leslie Stephen defined literature, especially poet~y, as the product of society.

He was a pioneer in the sociological interpretation of literature. In his book "English

literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century". he says. "The society and the indi-

vidual are in thorough harmony, and that I take it as the condition of really great

literature at all times.""

S.H.Burton comments: "Poetry and criticism have once again a social content

as they had in the eighteenth century. The modem poet is vividly conscious of himself

both as an individual and as a member of a society that double consciousness is re-

flected both in theme and in imagery".'O

9. Leslie Stephen, E~iglish 1,iterature and Society in the Eighteenth Century (London : Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., 196.51, p. 129.

10. S.H. Burton, Tire Criticism of Poetry (London : Longmans. Green & Co., 1955), p.145.

mind and expression of the authors in their works. In such cases, historical causes

show. in R pronounced way, the very meaning of literary works.

ilcrander Popc, as a critic, is a typical neo-classic. Social satire which was a

characteristic feature of his age, is an indication of the spirit of his age. One may be

tempted to wonder what interests a twentieth-century reader can be expected to take in

a social satire. Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" is directed against the social manners

and custonls of his age.

It is a mistaken notion to think that poets do not concern themselves with social

themes or that good poetry cannot be written on such themes. One considers William

Blake to be a mystic and esoteric. But the real fact is that many of his best poems such

as "London" and"Pref.nce to Milton" can be read meaningfully only in terms of Blake's

England. His outcry is against oppression, poverty, child labour and the indifference

of the government to the soldier. Love of nature, love of liberty for the individual, the

nation and the fallen people and their sentimental attitudes to life were the thematic

values found in the poems of the Romantics. William Wordsworth devoted a greater

part of his life to the study of political and social problems of his day. Wordsworth

stands out as the greatest of political poets and interpreters, that is, interpreters of

hopes, fears and passions of political life. Many of his poems relate to poverty, the

French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution. and their impact on the lives of the

common man. The works of these poets may not be understood and appreciated with-

out extensive historical, sociological or biographical background.

Northrop Frye, too, believes : "Literature is a part of a social process; hence

that pracess as a whole forms the genuine context of literature"". Literature is viewed

1 1. Northrop Frye, The Critical Path (London : Indiana University Press, 1973), p. 19.

19

as a social ;ictii~ity reflecting the changing social and economic patterns. A work of

art, is therefore, regarded as a social product with changing social functions to perform.

The sociological approach of analyzing a work of art has been applied to po-

etry by Marcists and F.W.Bateson. Bateson discusses Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written

in a Country Churchyard" in his book "English Poetry: A Critical Introduction" which

contrasts sharply in method with Cleanth Brooks' analysis of the same poem in his

book "The Well-Wrought Urn"12. Bateson accuses Cleanth Brooks of forcing a mean-

ing of Gray's swords that is not there. He believes that the inadequacy of Brooks' ac-

count is traceable to his exclusion of the social and historical factors.

Cleanth Brooks argues that the alleged simplicity and directness of the "Elegy"

can be seen after an examination of its use of cons.entions. The personifications, Brooks

thinks, are not vivid and fresh metaphors. The 'Elegy' fails because such conventional

accounts of the poems cannot explain the large and general truths. Another argumenr

of Brooks is that there is a very little description of the churchyard itself. Commenting

on the epitapl~, Brooks says that it does not hrnish a proper climax for the poem. He

complains that Gray is not identical with the youth in the poem who does not know the

meaning of fortune and fame.

Bateson argues that the poem must be read against the sombre autobiographi-

cal background because Gray had experienced sorrow between 1741 and 1742. This

also provides a clue to the inner conflict in Gray's poem. Bateson feels that Gray was

right in thinking that the poem would be ofpublic interest to the England of his time.

He had not written it entirely as an act ofprivate catharsis. The poem was a protest not

only against his own personal misfortunes but also the social order that had made

12. Cleanth Brooks, The Well-Wrought Urn : Studies in the Structure of Poetry (London Denis Dobson, 1968).

rhcni ] ) ~ i s ~ b I e . .4ccosding to Bateson, "The Elegy, in addition to the other things that it

1 , i s s o r I t i e s . i t was a plea for decentralization recalling the over-urban-

ized ruling ci.iss to its roots in a ruling society based upon the benevolent despotism of

the manor-house.

For H~ttesol?. recovering the meaning of a work of art involves reconstructing

the L\ orid picture - rhe totality of economic, political, religious and literary manifesta-

tions rhnt pro\ ided the incentive for the work and was the impulse behind it. The study

of the language of the work also requires this historical understanding for the mean-

ings of :t ords convey to a modem reader. The meaning of a work of art "thenl'need

not be i t hat ai~ybody understands from it "now". According to Bateson, "For the critic,

the initial cluestion is lvhat does this mean for me (now today)? For the historian, it is

more likely to be what did this originally mean for the author of his original a ~ t h o r . " ' ~

ikleaning is not autonomous but dependent on its socio-historical context, argues

Bateson.

For Leatiis, literary criticism is more important than literary history. For Bateson,

a ~ t o r k of literahire nwst have value to deserve any criticism at all. He says whether

literamre can be described as literature or not, depends upon its meaning, which in

turn, depends upoil its history. Bateson also emphasized on the continuity between

languages and literature but he later abandoned it, in an exchange with Roger Fowler.I5

Roy I-iarvey Pearce says, "We must, therefore consider the literary work as it is

a kind of statement which can never be dissociated from the time in which it is known"16.

13. F.W. Bateson, English Poetry : A Critical Introduction (London : Longmans, 1950), p.193.

14. b id . p.73.

15. F.VfJ.Batcson, Essays in Criticism Vol. 12. (1962).

16. Roy Harvey Peerce, 'lHistoricisrn Once More" in Twentieth Century Criticism : The Major Statements. ed. Wil1iam.J. Handy and Max Westbrook. (Ne~v York : The Free Press, 1974), p.360.

Pcnrcc assumes that our relation to literature has changed as we have changed, that the

ciinnges point us toward what can most accurately be called historicism. It does not

pertain to a school or to a coherent theory of cultural history. Rather it designates a

fairly diverse body of scholarship with common attributes. The range of such a work

includes a type of literary criticism that deals principally with the importance of local

political and social contexts for the understanding of literary texts. Therefore, criti-

cism can thus be taken to be a form of historical study, perhaps the purest of histori-

cisms.

Bateson's history lies not in history or sociology for its own sake but in recov-

e~ing the meaning of a work of art in its historical context. His basic argument with the

New Critics is that the text is not autonomous and self-contained but requires an his-

torical understanding of what it meant to its author and his reading public. The New

Critics like W.K.Wimsatt, Monroe Beardsley and Cleanth Brooks argued that a Iiter-

ary text explians itself independently of what its author intended (we have no means

of knowing the author's intention anyway) and of how it affected or was received by

its audience. The text, in other. words, carried its meaning on its face and can be

recovered by analysing it closely. For Bateson, poetry comes to have meaning in the

poet-reader relationship, which is another word for literary tradition.

In the forties, during the heyday of New Criticism, historical scholarship was

on the defensive. Much was done to re-assert the rights of criticism and literary theory

and to minimise the emphasis on biography and historical background. The New Crit-

ics denied that a work of art can be illuminated by historical knowledge. M , in New

Critical theory, seemed an autonomous entity, composed and permanent in contrast to

the strident demands for 'realism'.

The New Critics have argued that a literary work of art is a verbal structure of

a certain coherence and wholeness and that an historical study had oflen become com-

pletcly irrelevant to understand its total meaning. Rene Wellek says that one must

understand that the rejection of academic historical scholarship must not be inter-

preted as a rejection of the historicity of poetry. The New Criticism surely argues from

a sou~id premise that no coherent body of knowledge can be established unless it

defines its object, which to the New Critic will be the individual work of art clearly set

off from its antecedents in the mind of the author or in the social situation, as well as

frarn its effect in society.

Cleanth Brooks' "The Well-Wrought Urn" is classic New Criticism. It consists

of ten chapter - length studies of individual poems, flanked by statements of theory

and principle. The theoretical statements are exclusively literary. The Preface insists

on the need to treat poetry as poetry (a well-established New Critical axiom) and

proposes to investigate what remains when the poem is separated from its cultural

matrix. Thus the book negIects an historical context.

This chapter includes Bateson's views on contribution to the historical and so-

ciological studies, and the reaction from the New Critics. For Bateson, the idea that a

work of art is autonomous, is nonsense. It is determined by the circumstances at the

time of production whereas the New Critics, like Cleanth Brooks and W.K.Wimsatt

argue that the work of art is autonomous.