literary criticism section e notes

7/17/2019 Literary Criticism Section E Notes

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Literary Criticism [Section – E ] Miscellaneous NOTES

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Role of Spectacle in Tragedy

Spectacle is one of the six components of tragedy, occupying the category of the mode of imitation.Spectacle includes all aspects of the tragedy that contribute to its sensory effects: costumes, scenery,the gestures of the actors, the sound of the music and the resonance of the actors' voices. Aristotleranks spectacle last in importance among the other components of tragedy, remarking that a tragedy

does not need to be performed to have its impact on the audience, as it can be read as a text.

• Spectacle (opsis)

efers to the visual apparatus of the play, including set, costumes and props (anything youcan see). Aristotle calls spectacle the "least artistic" element of tragedy, and the "leastconnected with the work of the poet (playwright).

!or example: if the play has "beautiful" costumes and "bad" acting and "bad" story, there is"something #rong" #ith it. $ven though that "beauty" may save the play it is "not a nice thing".Spectacle is like a suspenseful horror film.

Summary

Aristotle no# narro#s his focus to examine tragedy exclusively. %n order to do so, he provides a

definition of tragedy that #e can break up into seven parts:

(&) it involves mimesis

() it is serious

() the action is complete and #ith magnitude

(*) it is made up of language #ith the "pleasurable accessories" of rhythm and harmony

(+) these "pleasurable accessories" are not used uniformly throughout, but are introduced in separate

parts of the #ork, so that, for instance, some bits are spoken in verse and other bits are sung

( ) it is performed rather than narrated and

(-) it arouses the emotions of pity and fear and accomplishes a katharsis(purification or purgation) of

these emotions.

ext, Aristotle asserts that any tragedy can be divided into six component parts, and that every

tragedy is made up of these six parts #ith nothing else besides. /here is (a) the spectacle, #hich is the

overall visual appearance of the stage and the actors. /he means of imitation (language, rhythm, and

harmony) can be divided into (b) melody, and (c) diction, #hich has to do #ith the composition of the

verses. /he agents of the action can be understood in terms of (d) character and (e) thought. /hought

seems to denote the intellectual 0ualities of an agent #hile character seems to denote the moral

0ualities of an agent. !inally, there is (f) the plot, or mythos, #hich is the combination of incidents and

actions in the story.

Aristotle argues that, among these six, the plot is the most important. /he characters serve to advance

the action of the story, not vice versa. /he ends #e pursue in life, our happiness and our misery, alltake the form of action. /hat is, according to Aristotle, happiness consists in a certain kind of activity

rather than in a certain 0uality of character. 1iction and thought are also less significant than plot: a

series of #ell2#ritten speeches have nothing like the force of a #ell2structured tragedy. !urther,

Aristotle suggests, the most po#erful elements in a tragedy, the peripeteia and the anagnorisis, are

elements of the plot. 3astly, Aristotle notes that forming a solid plot is far more difficult than creating

good characters or diction.

4aving asserted that the plot is the most important of the six parts of tragedy, he ranks the remainder

as follo#s, from most important to least: character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle. 5haracter

reveals the individual motivations of the characters in the play, #hat they #ant or don't #ant, and ho#

they react to certain situations, and this is more important to Aristotle than thought, #hich deals on a

more universal level #ith reasoning and general truths. 6elody and spectacle are simply pleasurable

accessories, but melody is more important to the tragedy than spectacle: a pretty spectacle can be

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes 1

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CBwQFjAAahUKEwjF89-40ZzIAhVJkY4KHS31BJY&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.english.hawaii.edu%2Fcriticalink%2Faristotle%2Fterms%2Fspectacle.html&usg=AFQjCNGxqt85fx21Q6Xm4KG_wTKKImGB3Q&sig2=6Am9U807HNLvcPZyXWkUxg&bvm=bv.103627116,d.c2E

http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/aristotle/terms/tragedy.html


http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/aristotle/terms/mode.html


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsis



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsis

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CBwQFjAAahUKEwjF89-40ZzIAhVJkY4KHS31BJY&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.english.hawaii.edu%2Fcriticalink%2Faristotle%2Fterms%2Fspectacle.html&usg=AFQjCNGxqt85fx21Q6Xm4KG_wTKKImGB3Q&sig2=6Am9U807HNLvcPZyXWkUxg&bvm=bv.103627116,d.c2E




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arranged #ithout a play, and usually matters of set and costume aren't the occupation of the poet

any#ay.

Q. 1.What did Aristotle mean by"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities"?

Answer :

Aristotle is referring to Suspension of disbelief in character arts(especially in the fantasy genre)

First a few definitions: Probability is the likelihood of an event happening.The sample space of all events that can happen in the universe represents the" possibilities".

Believable is good drama, even if impossible Probable Impossibility refers to a situation that is impossible to happen in thereal world but is probable in the universe of imaginary events that is assumed toe!ist.This lets the readeraudience suspend her #udgment concerning the impossibility ofthe narrative.

In other words, create your own imaginary worlds(with impossible events like fish raising families and being able to talk),

but within that create believable plots.(for example, Finding Nemo).

Being believable works better than being realistic

$mprobable %ossibility refers to a situation that is a possibility in the real world but is

e!tremely unlikely. &or e!ample 'ames ond winning every poker game. Sure it is possible

that someone can win every game but it is e!tremely unlikely. This makes bad drama.

fictions (impossibilities) that seem plausible can make good drama while notimpossible but

ridiculously unlikely actions make bad drama. *e+s drawing a fairly fine distinction in that

some things that didn+t happen seem like they could have happened: you easily suspend

disbelief. Science fiction is most rife with this and the stories that Aristotle cites as e!amples

(,edipus The ,dyssey) have a tinge of the scifi to them.

Aristotle In his Poetics he describes a number of qualities useful if not crucial to the art

of drama! "ne of these is the idea of #robability$

In general, the impossible must be justified by reference to artistic requirements, or to the higher

reality, or to received opinion. With respect to the requirements of art, a probable impossibility is to be

preferred to a thing improbable and yet possible. Again, it may be impossible that there should be men

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes %

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief



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such as Zeuxis painted. ‘es,! "e say, ‘but the impossible is the higher thing# for the ideal type must

surpass the reality.!

$he %ey phrase in understanding the concept, I thin%, is ‘the requirements of art!.

If "e "ere loo%ing at the requirements of ‘science! I thin% the improbable "ould be hugely preferred

to the impossible. &o"ever, Aristotle believed that art!s purpose "as to represent a reality ‘higher!,

‘greater!, or perhaps just more harmonious, than our o"n.

&is example, Zeuxis, painted highly idealised portraits. 'or Aristotle this "as o%, because it

represented reality in a "ay that "as ‘higher!, or more perfect. Aristotle justified this by reference to

the ‘action! of the drama, "here each action must bear a relationship of plausibility "ith objective

reality and "ith the previous events "ithin the drama. It becomes more acceptable to a drama!s

audience, he says, to introduce impossibility, such as a god, rather than an improbability,

7.

A commonplace is a rhetorical device developed by teachers like Aristotle, and has been used in

numerous applications in public speaking for many years. %ronically, the commonplace is less common no#,

though you8ll still see references to commonplace books, #hich are 0uite different.

$ven before Aristotle, the Sophists, a group of itinerant scholars traveling the various 9reek city2states often

taught ho# to #rite and deliver speeches. /hey often performed such speeches for audiences to gain ne#students, and #ere occasionally asked to speak on a specific topic #ith little preparation time. %n order to

create material that sounded scholarly, they usually had prepared a number of themes or compositions that

could be easily adapted 0uickly to be performed at #ill.

Aristotle called these themes commonplaces, and by the term he meant no

derision. %n fact he taught his students to create a variety of prepared themes, #hich could be delivered as

occasion re0uired.

They generally took two forms: encomium or ituperation.

$ncomiums praised something, usually something virtuous that affected most people, like different

emotions, or things like democracy. ituperation critici;ed something considered evil.

Sentiment in both literature and rhetoric had begun to praise the truly extemporaneous, instead of the

prepared, and often dismissed commonplaces as something to be avoided because they sounded trite and

repetitious

&' ! Art of (hetoric !

Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric is one of the )rst and most im#ortant *te+tboo,s for

s#eech #roduction! .ollo/in0 Aristotle the #ur#ose of rhetorical s#eech consists

in #ersuadin0 by ar0umentation! In this res#ect he de)nes rhetoric as the

faculty of disco2erin0 the #ossible means of #ersuasion in reference to any

sub3ect /hate2er!4 5(hetoric I 1'66b718%9! No/ #ersuasion #resu##oses : asany #erlocutionary act : that the utterances ha2e been understood by the

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes '

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audience in short$ it #resu##oses 5te+t9 com#rehension!1 ;hen analysin0 the

)rst three #hases of rhetoric : heuresis ta+is and le+is : t/o features in #articular

stand out on account of the role they #lay in ar0umentation$ to#os and meta#hor

/hich are treated in the heuresis and the le+is! % <eta#hor /or,s in a heuristic

and aesthetic manner /hile to#os o#erates in a heuristic and lo0ical manner!

=his di>erence is 0rounded in their res#ecti2e characteristics /hich /ill bediscussed in the second and third sections of this #a#er! In the fourth section it is

sho/n ho/ meta#hor and to#os are based on common ,no/led0e and ho/ they

are used in rhetorical te+t #roduction!

Q! "o# to $e%ne To&os '

In contrast to meta#hor to#os is ne2er e+#licitly de)ned by Aristotle! ?o/e2er in

=he Art of (hetoric Aristotle calls to#oi 0eneral features /hich may be a##lied

ali,e to La/ Physics Politics and many other sciences that di>er in ,ind such as

the to#ic of the more or less4 5(hetoric I 1'6@a7%19! .ollo/in0 C?! S=E==E(

51B$ 'B9

the topos is «a place of common belief, where orator and audience

meet each other.»

In the techne rhetori,e the to#oi bear a double function$ on the one

hand they are *search locations /hich the author has to come across in the

#rocess of heuresis in order to )nd #ro#er #remises for structurin0 the

ar0umentation! Additionally the term denotes its concrete realisation as the

#remise of the so-called Rhetorical Syllogism4!

Literary Device (oint of !iew "#$

Point of view is the perspective from which a story is narrated. Every story has a

perspective, though there can be more than one type of point of view in a work of literature. The most common

points of view used in novels are first person singular (“I! and third person (“he and “she!. "owever, there

are many variants on these two types of point of view, as well as other less common narrative points of view.

The term point of view (POV) refers to who is telling a story, or who is narrating.

The narrator of a story or novel can appear in three main ways: first person,

second person and third person.

#efinition$

(oint of vie" is the manner in "hich a story is narrated or depicted and "ho it is that tells the

story. )imply put, the point of vie" determines the angle and perception of the story

unfolding, and thus influences the tone in "hich the story ta%es place. $he point of vie" is

instrumental in manipulating the reader!s understanding of the narrative. In a "ay, the point of

vie" can allo" or "ithhold the reader access into the greater reaches of the story. $"o of the

most common point of vie" techniques are the first person, "herein the story is told by thenarrator from his or her standpoint and the third person "herein the narrator does not figure in


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the events of the story and tells the story by referring to all characters and places in the third

person "ith third person pronouns and proper nouns.

'irst (erson * $his narrator is usually the protagonistof the story, and this point of vie" allo"s

the reader access to the character!s inner thoughts and reactions to the events occurring. All of

the action is processed through the narrator!s perspective, and therefore this type of narrator

may be unreliable.

%econd Person $ $his point of vie" either implies that the narrator is actually an +I trying to

separate himself or herself from the events that he or she is narrating, or allo"s the reader to

identify "ith the central character. $his "as populari-ed in the /01s series Choose o!r Own

"dvent!re, and appears in the recent novel Pretty #ittle $ista%es by &eather 2c3lhatton*

Third Person

$his point of vie" definition uses +he and +she as the pronouns to refer to different

characters, and provides the greatest amount of flexibility for the author.

Significance of Point of View in Literature

$he choice of the point of vie" from "hich to narrate a story greatly affects both the

reader!s experience of the story and the type of information the author is able to

impart. 'irst person creates a greater intimacy bet"een the reader and the story, "hile

third person allo"s the author to add much more complexity to the plot and

development of different characters that one character "ouldn!t be able to perceive on

his or her o"n.

$herefore, point of vie" has a great amount of significance in

every piece of literature. $he relative popularities of different types of point of vie"

have changed over the centuries of novel "riting. 'or example, epistolary novels "ere

once quite common but have largely fallen out of favor. 'irst person point is vie",

mean"hile, is quite common no" "hereas it "as hardly used at all before the

41th century.

E&ample$

In the popular 5ord of the 6ings boo% series, the stories are narrated in the third person and allhappenings are described from an +outside the story point of vie". 7ontrastingly, in the


http://www.literarydevices.com/protagonist/

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popular teen boo% series, (rincess 8iaries, the story is told in the first person, by the

protagonist herself.

Definition of Stream of Consciousness (or Internal Monologue)

When used as a term in literature, stream of consciousness is a narrative form in "hich the

author "rites in a "ay that mimics or parallels a character!s internal thoughts. )ometimes this

device is also called +internal monologue, and often the style incorporates the natural chaos

of thoughts and feelings that occur in any of our minds at any given time. 9ust as happens in

real life, stream:of:consciousness narratives often lac% associative leaps and are characteri-ed

by an absence of regular punctuation.

$he term +stream of consciousness first came about in 0/1 "hen the philosopher and

psychologist William 9ames used it in his boo%, The Principles of Psychology. &e used it to

describe the natural flo" of thoughts that, even "hile the different parts are not necessarily

connected, the brain does not distinguish one thought as strictly independent from the next.

2ay )inclair "as the first person, in /0, to adapt the definition of stream of consciousness

to literature.

Difference Between Stream of Consciousness and Free riting

$he activity of free "riting is a technique to remove inhibitions from creativity. &ree

writing enco!rages a writer to get words down on paper witho!t editing or worrying abo!t

the prod!ct, %nowing that most of it will not necessarily be all that interesting.

)tream of consciousness, on the other hand, is "riting that has been

polished and has a purpose, even "hile giving the impression that it is some"hat +random.

Authors "ho use the technique of stream of consciousness do so "ith intentions to guide the

character from one place to the next internally and not just let the character!s thoughts go

hay"ire.

Significance of Stream of Consciousness in Literature

)tream of consciousness is a device that gained

popularity in t"entieth:century literature. $here are some examples of stream of

consciousness before this time, such as in the ;<; novel Tristam 'handy or 3dgar Allen

(oe!s precursor style in +$he $ell:$ale &eart and other "or%s. In general, ho"ever, it!s

considered a modern style.

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes D


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)tream of consciousness can be found in literature from different cultures and languages.

)tream of consciousness examples can be found in the "or%s of 'rench "riter 2arcel (roust,

Indian "riter )alman 6ushdie, Irish "riter 9ames 9oyce, Italian "riter Italo )vevo, 2exican

"riter 6oberto =ola>o and contemporary American novelist 8ave 3ggers. Authors use stream

of consciousness to more closely follo" a character!s interior life. )tream of consciousness

gives a very direct vie" into the subtle and sometimes rapid shifts in the "ay a character

thin%s "hile going about his or her day. $his provides a very intimate relationship bet"een the

reader and the character.

!"amples of Stream of Consciousness in Literature

E&ample '

I gro" old ? I gro" old ?

I shall "ear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

)hall I part my hair behind@ 8o I dare to eat a peach@

I shall "ear "hite flannel trousers, and "al% upon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not thin% that they "ill sing to me.

+$he 5ove )ong of 9. Alfred (rufroc% by $.). 3liotB

$his is one of the early examples of stream of consciousness "riting from the t"entieth

century it "as published in /<B. $.). 3liot explores his narrator!s inner life throughout the

poem, moving from one thought to the next quic%ly. $he above excerpt sho"s several

different thoughts "ithin the space of just a fe" lines. &o"ever, the use of stream of

consciousness in this poem belies a real depth of feeling, as the narrator seems to "ant to

ma%e himself understood throughout the poem and struggles "ith that connection.

! )ne of the characters in *illiam +aulkners novel #$e Sound and t$e Fur% is

-eny, a cognitively disabled man. "is section of the novel is written in a stream

of consciousness style, documenting -enys sensory e&periences of the world

without the advantage of being able to really understand them

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes B




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(e%nition of Sym)olism

;hen used as a literary de2ice symbolism means to imbue ob3ects /ith a certainmeanin0 that is di>erent from their ori0inal meanin0 or function! "ther literary

de2ices such as meta#hor alle0ory and allusion aid in the de2elo#ment of

symbolism! Authors use symbolism to tie certain thin0s that may initially seem

unim#ortant to more uni2ersal themes! =he symbols then re#resent these

0rander ideas or qualities! .or instance an author may use a #articular color that

on its o/n is nothin0 more than a color but hints at a dee#er meanin0! "ne

notable e+am#le is in ose#h Conrads a#tly titled Heart of Darkness /here the

Fdar,nessG of the African continent in his /or, is su##osed to symboliHe its

bac,/ardness and the #ossibility of e2il there !

=here are also cultural symbols such as a do2e re#resentin0 #eace! %he

&merican 'ag$ =he thirteen red and /hite stri#es on the American a0

symboliHe the ori0inal thirteen colonies /hile the )fty stars are a symbol for

the )fty states!

%he ve )lympic rings$ =he #rimary symbol of the "lym#ics is the ima0e of

)2e interloc,in0 rin0s

Si*ni%cance of Sym)olism in Literature

Symbolism has #layed a lar0e role in the history of literature! Symbols ha2e

been used in cultures all around the /orld e2ident in ancient le0ends

fables and reli0ious te+ts! "ne famous e+am#le of symbolism is the story

of the Jarden of Eden in /hich the ser#ent #ersuades E2e to eat an a##le

from the tree of ,no/led0e! =he ser#ent in this story re#resents /ic,ednessand the a##le is a symbol for ,no/led0e! Symbolism is equally im#ortant in

#oetry #rose and #lays as /ell as in all 0enres of literature from science

)ction to fantasy to )ction for youn0 adults 53ust thin, of ?arry Potters scar

Ka symbol of his bein0 the Fchosen oneG as /ell as his ability to o2ercome

e2il9! ;hen analyHin0 a #iece of literature e+aminin0 the #rimary symbols

often leads to a 0reater understandin0 of the /or, itself!

=hou0h the de)nition of symbolism most often relates to a literary de2ice

there /as also a nineteenth-century literary mo2ement called FSymbolism!G

=he mo2ement /as chiey based in .rance (ussia and el0ium and /as

0reatly inuenced by the /or,s of Ed0ar Allen Poe! Symbolists re3ected

realism and instead thou0ht that truth could only be re#resented in an

indirect manner i!e! throu0h symbols! .amous symbolists /ere Charles

audelaire StM#hane <allarmM Paul erlaine Arthur (imbaud and EHra

Pound!

E+am&les of Sym)olism in Literature

Nathaniel ?a/thorne named his no2el The Scarlet Letter after the central symbol of the

boo,!

The Glass Menagerie by =ennessee ;illiams ta,es its name from the most #re2alent symbolin the #lay!

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes @

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! . #hat is end of poetry according to Samuel $ohnson %

Samuel $ohnson (&' Septemer &*+ -.S. Septemer / &0 1ecemer &'2)

'ha%espeare has united the po"ers of exciting laughter and sorro" not only in one mind,

but in one composition. Almost all his plays are divided bet"een serious and ludicrous

characters, and, in the successive evolutions of the design, sometimes produce

seriousness and sorro", and sometimes levity and laughter.

$hat this is a practice contrary to the rules of criticism "ill be readily allo"ed# but there

is al"ays an appeal open from criticism to nature. The end of writing is to

instruct/ the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing. $hat the mingled drama

may convey all the instruction of tragedy or comedy cannot be denied, because it

includes both in its alterations of exhibition and approaches nearer than either to the

appearance of life, by eshe"ing ho" great machinations and slender designs may

promote or obviate one another, and the high and the lo" co:operate in the general

system by unavoidable concatenation.

*

+

It is objected, that by this change of scenes the passions are interrupted in their

progression, and that the principal event, being not advanced by a due gradation of preparatory incidents, "ants at last the po"er to move, "hich constitutes the perfection

of dramatic% poetry. $his reasoning is so specious, that it is received as true even by

those "ho in daily experience feel it to be false. $he interchanges of mingled scenes

seldom fail to produce the intended vicissitudes of passion. 'iction cannot move so

much, but that the attention may be easily transferred# and though it must be allo"ed that

pleasing melancholy be sometimes interrupted by un"elcome levity, yet let it be

considered li%e"ise, that melancholy is often not pleasing, and that the disturbance of

one man may be the relief of another# that different auditors have different habitudes# and

that, upon the "hole, all pleasure consists in variety.

;hen Shakespeare’s #lan is understood most of the criticisms of Rhymer and Voltaire

2anish a/ay! =he #lay of Hamlet is o#ened /ithout im#ro#riety by t/o sentinelsO Iago

bello/s at Braantio’s /indo/ /ithout in3ury to the scheme of the #lay thou0h in terms

/hich a modern audience /ould not easily endureO the character of !oloni"s is

seasonable and usefulO and the Jra2e-di00ers themsel2es may be heard /ith a##lause!

=he force of his comic, scenes has su>ered little diminution from the chan0es made by a

century and a half in manners or in /ords! As his #ersona0es act u#on #rinci#les arisin0

from 0enuine #assion 2ery little modi)ed by #articular forms their #leasures and

2e+ations are communicable to all times and to all #lacesO they are natural and therefore

durableO the ad2entitious #eculiarities of #ersonal habits are only su#er)cial dies bri0ht

and #leasin0 for a little /hile yet soon fadin0 to a dim tinct /ithout any remains of

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes




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former lustreO but the discriminations of true #assion are the colours of natureO they

#er2ade the /hole mass and can only #erish /ith the body that e+hibits them!

Narration in dramatic, #oetry is naturally tedious as it is unanimated and inacti2e and

obstructs the #ro0ress of the action! Shakespeare found it an encumberance and instead

of li0htenin0 it by bre2ity endea2oured to recommend it by di0nity and s#lendour! ?is

declamations or set s#eeches are commonly cold and /ea, for his #o/er /as the #o/er

of natureO /hen he endea2oured li,e other tra0ic, /riters to catch o##ortunities of

am#li)cation

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*+. Lives of the oets

-. " To a poet nothing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful and whatever is dreadful

must be familiar to his imagination: he must be conversant with all that is awfully

vast or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the

minerals of the earth, and meteors of the sky, must all concur to store his mind

with inexhaustible variety: for every idea is useful for the enforcement or

decoration of moral or religious truth; and he who knows most will have most

power of diversifying his scenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions

and unexpected instruction."

Samuel Johnson

. " It is a general rule in poetry, that all appropriated terms of art should be

sunk in general expressions, because poetry is to speak an universal

language. This rule is still stronger with regard to arts not liberal, orconfined to few, and therefore far removed from common knowledge." ohnson: !ryden #ives of the $oets%

/. "The essence of verse is regularity, and its ornament is variety. To write

verse is to dispose syllables and sounds harmonically by some known and

settled rule -- a rule however lax enough to substitute similitude for

identity, to admit change without breach of order, and to relieve the ear

without disappointing it." ohnson: !ryden #ives of the $oets%

0. Poetry"It seems natural for a young poet to initiate himself by pastorals, which,

not professing to imitate real life, require no experience and, exhibiting

only the simple operation of unmingled passions, admit no subtle

reasoning or deep inquiry."

ohnson: $ope #ives of the $oets%

1. Poetry; Similes

"! simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subect must

show it to the understanding in a clearer view, and display it to the fancy

with greater dignity but either of these qualities may be sufficient to

recommend it. In didactic poetry, of which the great purpose is instruction,





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a simile may be praised which illustrates, though it does not ennoble in

heroics, that may be admitted which ennobles, though it does not

illustrate. That it may be complete, it is required to exhibit, independently

of its references, a pleasing image for a simile is said to be a short

episode."

ohnson: $ope #ives of the $oets%

Q7. What is the main concept in "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" by William

Wordsworth?

In the Preface toLyrical Ballads, Wordsworth wanted to express his theory of

poetry. The Preface is therefore a justification of that theory and of the themes

and styles of the poems inLyrical Ballads.

One aspect of this theory was to use themes about common life (usually in rural

environments and situations involving a connection to nature). Thus, Wordsworth

wanted to explore how one could attain profound truths and sublime emotional

experiences via the imagination. In other words, this process is about

understanding the extraordinary while experiencing the ordinary.

Poetry is to be created out of these extraordinary/ordinary experiences. Poetry will

be the spontaneous overflow of emotion reflected in tranquility. The poet has an

experience and, reflecting on it later, can arrive at a deeper understanding about

that experience and about the act of reflection. The process of experience/feeling

and reflection is not just a method for poetic creation; it is also Wordsworth's

recommended method for experience in general.

Wordsworth wanted the style ofLyrical Ballads to stick with the common life

theme. He proposed to avoid personification and traditional poetic diction, favoring

instead more common (natural) language of people. In a sense, focusing on

feeling (lyrical) more than poetic form (i.e., a ballad),

Wordsworth shifts the focus from form to content. Although he was attempting a

less formalistic poetry in favor of a more natural (even more prose-like) poetry, he

did note that verse was the best form for conveying strong emotional content.





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I might perhaps include all which it is necessaryto say upon this subject by

affirming, what few persons will deny, that, of two descriptions, either of passions,

manners, or characters, each of them equally well executed, the one in prose and

the other in verse, the verse will be read a hundred times where the prose is read

once.

One could easily argue that a poem (or a song) has a longer life in the memory

than a passage from a work of prose (i.e. a novel). This isn't just because a poem

tends to be a shorter work. It's also because of the cadence and rhythm, natural

mnemonic devices. In depicting poems about realistic, common people in rustic

environments, Wordsworth was rejecting the poetry of the past which tended to

treat kings, queens, and heroes in an overly regimented style. For Wordsworth,

real people were more relevant. More to the point, Wordsworth believed that

sublime emotions can be discovered in the experience and reflection of common

experiences.

In other words, it can be inspiring to identify extraordinary virtue in a poem about

an extraordinary hero whose exploits are unbelievable to the point of being

legendary. Wordsworth supposed that (his main concept) it would also be

inspiring, more relevant, and more rewarding to identify extraordinary virtue in a

poem about ordinary life.

Q8. brief summary to Wordsworth's Preface To Lyrical Ballads that definesWordsworth's idea of the poet, poetry and poetic language?

While Wordsworth is not setting out a complete poetic defense wherein he defines

his aesthetic

("I have therefore altogether declined to enter regularly upon this defence"),

it is true that in the Preface he does discuss his ideas of what the poet is, what

poetry is and, most importantly toLyrical Ballads, what the language of poetry is.

Wordsworth first implies thataPoet is one who arranges language expressing

ideas in metrical form. This language he arranges is "in a state of vivid

sensation." In other words, it isemotional reaction to ideas or emotional

expressions of feeling.

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes 1%




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The Poet is one who "rationally" (i.e., reasonably)imparts the "vivid

sensation," or emotionalism, in metrical form to readers. In other words, in

Wordsworth's view, the Poet discerns vivid emotional states in people

around him and captures those emotional states in poetic meter and rhyme

("metrical arrangements") to "impart" this vision to the reader.

Wordsworth also has something to say about what aPoetis not.

This false Poet substitutes "feeling ..., philosophical language" with"arbitrary and capricious habits of expression" that falsely accrues honor to

their poetic skill.

In other words, these anti-Poets turn their backs on the real language of everyday

expressions of emotion and invent "their own creations" of poetic language that

are artificial, the product of a whim, lacking philosophical importance, lacking

clarity. They think they become honored poets this way but really only "furnish

food" for poor taste that has no solid bearings and is "fickle."

RegardingPoetry, Wordsworth implies that Poetry is in part a matter of what iscustomary:

[The reader will] struggle with feelings of strangeness and aukwardness: they will look round for

poetry, and will be induced to inquire by what species of courtesy these [Lyrical Ballads] can be

permitted to assume that title.

More importantly though,Poetry is the outflowing of emotion--of sentiment--that

has been tempered by serious, "long," deep thought and that therefore describes"objects" and "sentiments" that relate to "important subjects" of discussion.

Poetic language, according to Wordsworth--and this is one of the paramount

ideas in the Preface--is the language of common people speaking everyday

expressions and expressing everyday sensations of rural

(i.e., pastoral) people in an [idealized] rural life. Wordsworth says this language is

"more emphatic" having "greater simplicity" being "more accurately contemplated"and "incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature." In other

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes 1'




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words, commonplace, "low," "rustic" language is more intuitive, insightful, genuine,

sincere than is the contrived elegant language of Poets (or anit-Poets).

Importantly, Wordsworth concedes that thislanguage must be

(1) filtered through the Poet's mind and

(2) cleaned up, "purified," of what is vulgar, crass, incorrect and offensive before

this shinning quality of greatness can show through.

Thus many critics, including Coleridge, have found great contradiction and fallacy

in Wordsworth's position on poetic common, low, language.

The language, ... [must be] (purified indeed from what appear to be its real

defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust)

Q9. Discuss Wordsworth's views on poetic diction in "Preface

to Lyrical Ballads".

Essentially, Wordsworth denied that there should be such a thing as a dictionspecific to poetry. He thought that artifical poetic diction used by many writers

obscured the sentiment and feeling that ought to be the focus of poetry. Rather

than ornate, basically ornamental language, Wordsworth thought the diction of

prose and the diction of poetry should be the same:

It may be safely affirmed, that there neither is, nor can be,any essential difference

between the language of prose and metrical composition.

Wordsworth went even further, asserting that poetry ought to be written in

the"language really spoken by men," which would accentuate the

emotive power of the works by giving them more authenticity. In short, he

hoped to strip away what he saw as the pretensions and stuffiness of poetry

as it had been written by his predecessors, and his views on diction were

central to this project.





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Q10. Critically refers to atleast Three contradiction in wordsworth preface ?

OR

What are some ideas about poets and poetry proposed by William Wordsworth in his "Preface"

to the Lyrical Ballads (1802)?

&nswer #In his "Preface" to theLyrical Ballads (1802), William Wordsworth lays

out many of the ideas often associated with Romanticism in English poetry.

Among those ideas are the following:

1.an emphasis on the "real language" actually spoken by human beings,

especially human beings from the lower reaches of society. Wordsworth thus

rejects the kind of “poetic” language that had come to seem stale, artificial, and

unconvincing.2.an emphasis on "vivid sensation," or heightened emotion and perception.

3.an emphasis on using poetry to provide "more than common pleasure."

4.an emphasis on "incidents and situations from common life."

5.an emphasis on using “imagination” to “throw a certain coloring over”

descriptions of such incidents and situations so that ordinary things should be

presented to the mind in an unusual way . . . in order to make these incidents

and situations interesting by tracing in them . . . the primary laws of our nature:

chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of

excitement.

6.an emphasis on “[l]ow and rustic life,” which often reveals essential human

nature more readily than the kinds of lives lived by the allegedly more

sophisticated persons of the upper classes.

7.an emphasis on “the essential passions of the heart.”

8.an emphasis on a “plainer and more emphatic language” than is usually found

among the highly educated

9.an emphasis on the ways human emotions are “incorporated with the beautiful

and permanent forms of nature.”

10.a rejection of the kinds of “arbitrary and capricious habits of expression”

traditionally used in conventional poetry





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11.an emphasis on poetry as a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” but also

on the poet as a person who has “thought long and deeply”:

12.For our continued influxes of feeling are modified and directed by our thoughts,

which are indeed the representatives of all our past feelings . . . .13.an emphasis on “the fluxes and refluxes of the mind when [it is] agitated by the

great and simple affections of our nature.”

14.a rejection of the emphasis on abstract ideas and conventional personifications

that had characterized the poetry of the eighteenth century.

15.an emphasis on looking directly and steadily at whatever the poet tries to describe

and thus a rejection of “falsehood of description.”

16.an emphasis on a kind of poetic language that resembles the language of

common prose.

17.an emphasis on the poet as “a man speaking to men” – that is, as a person who

can effectively articulate the kinds of thoughts and feelings experienced by most

human beings.

*--. %erry eagleton views on Re'ectionist %heory

=he question of #artisanshi# in literature is bound u# to some e+tent /ith the #roblem of

ho/ /or,s of literature relate to the real /orld! Socialist realisms #rescri#tion that

literature should teach certain #olitical attitudes assumes that literature does indeed 5or

at least ou0ht to9 reect or re#roduce social reality in a fairly direct /ay! <ar+ and En0els

interestin0ly do not themsel2es use the meta#hor of reection about literary /or,s

althou0h <ar+ s#ea,s in =he ?oly .amily of Eu0ne Sues no2el bein0 in some res#ects

untrue to the life of its times and En0els could )nd in ?omer direct illustrations of ,inshi#

systems in early Jreece!

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes 1D




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Ne2ertheless re'ectionism has been a deep$seated tendency in 2ar3ist

criticism, as a way of combating formalist theories of literature which loc4 the

literary wor4 within its own sealed space, marooned from history!

In its cruder formulations the idea that literature reects reality is clearly inadequate! It

su00ests a #assi2e mechanistic relationshi# bet/een literature and society as thou0h

the /or, li,e a mirror or #hoto0ra#hic #late merely inertly re0istered /hat /as

ha##enin0 out there! Lenin s#ea,s of =olstoy as the mirror of the (ussian re2olution of

16O but if =olstoys /or, is a mirror then it is as Pierre <acherey ar0ues one #laced at

an an0le to reality a bro,en mirror /hich #resents its ima0es in fra0mented form and is

as e+#ressi2e in /hat it does not reect as in /hat it does! If art reects life ertolt

recht comments in A Short "r0anum for the =heatre 518@9 It does so /ith s#ecial

mirrors! And if /e are to s#ea, of a selecti2e mirror /ith certain blinds#ots and

refractions then it seems that the meta#hor has ser2ed its limited usefulness and had

better be discarded for somethin0 more hel#ful!

*-/. 5entripetal 5riticism 6orthrop 7rye 6)R%8R) 7R9: ;%8: &R58:%9:S )7 L<%:R&%=R:>

As such, 'rye contends, in a vein similar to the Ce" 7ritics that literary criticism must be put

on a systematic and scientific basis.

&e dismisses as +(seudo:criticism all criticism "ith +centrifugal tendencies, that is, "hich

diverts our attention a"ay from the literary "or% itself.

&e counts in this regard 7 literary criticism that masquerades as “casual value0udgments,

ones that are not +based on literary experience . . . but are . . . derived from religious or

political prejudice.

&e is evidently thin%ing here of "hat the 1ew 2ritic 3ohn 2rowe 4ansom calls the

5 6oralistic 7pproach To 8iterary 2riticism Practised -y The "umanists 7nd The 6ar&ists 7likeB#

literary criticism of the sort advocated by I. 7. 4ichards that focuses on the

+impact of literature on the reader

(the so0called 5affective fallacy against which *imsatt and -eardsley famously warned!# and

literary criticism that focuses on the author as the source of the literary "or%

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes 1B




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the so:called 5intentional fallacy against "hich *imsatt and -eardsley also famously

"arnedB.

&e dismisses in this regard all “%entimental 3udgments that are

“based either on non0e&istent categories or antitheses (5%hakespeare studied life,6ilton books!or on a visceral reaction to the writers personality .

3vidently, 'rye shares much in these three respects "ith the Ce" 7ritics and their opposition

to moralistic& affective (reader'oriented) and intentional (aut$or'oriented) approac$es tocriticism

In their place, 'rye advocates a + rhetorical or structural analysis of a work of art ,

an approach that is +centripetal in thrust, rather than‘centrifugal.!

Another huge influence on 'rye in this regard is Aristotle!s philosophy and literary

theory. Aristotle famously argued that to understand any natural or humanly:made

phenomenon,

it is necessary to ascertain the four conditions (causes! necessary to its

e&istence$

. The 6aterial 2ause the material of "hich something is made D in the case of

art, the "ords and actions of humans and their natural and social environments

representedB,

4. The Efficient 2ause the divine or human agent responsible for its existence D the artist or authorB,

E. The +ormal 2ause "hat it is meant to be, "hat shape it is meant to haveB,

and

F. The +inal 2ause to "hat end it exists, its ultimate purposeB.

'rye is uneasy "ith emphasising the first t"o of these causes because each tends to be

centrifugal, that is, to lead the critic a"ay from the literary "or% per se.

'or example, the +material cause of the work of art , for 'rye consists in the

“ social conditions and cultural demands which produced it .

$he quest to understand the material cause of literary "or%s leads the critic outside of his

o"n discipline i.e. the study of literatureB and into the province of biography, socio:political

history and literary history.

)imilarly, the 9uest to understand the “efficient cause of the literary work

leads the critic to focus on the relationship bet"een the "riter and his G her "or%, rather thanthe "or% itself.

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes 1@




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Alluding evidently to 'reudian psychoanalysis, 'rye cites in this regard "hat he terms the

“+allacy of Premature Teleology , the vie" that the +critic should not loo% for more in the

poemthan the poet may safely be assumed to have been conscious of putting there .

'rye asserts that a “kind of literary psychology connecting the poet with the poem is

unavoidable for revealing the +failures in his expression, the things in him "hich are still

attached to his "or% as "ell as his “private mythology, his own . . . peculiar formation of

symbols, of much of which he is unconscious .

&o"ever, 'rye is of the vie" that criticism should not degenerate into mere biography for

the simple reason that this leads one a"ay from the "or% in order to focus on the individual

responsible for it.

*-0. ?hat is 5entripetal 5riticism

criticism is a structure of thought and knowledge existing in its own right, with some measure

of independence from the art it deals with

.5riticism that is centripetal moves to#ard the meanings embedded in the text itself (usually

poems)<like, #hat's going on #ith the actual #ords right there on the page=

The poem's rhyme scheme, alliteration, use of metaphor, and all of such things form

and inalienable part of centripetal criticism.

Centrifugal criticism asks about the outside context of a #ork<usually a novel. >hat #as the

social, political, and cultural context of, say, Moby-Dick

5entrifugal criticism also looks at the syntax and use of language<but more for #hat it tells

you about relations among the characters, tone, and events of the narrative and less about

the aesthetic 0ualities of the #ords themselves.

As % say, "6riticism will always hae two aspects, one turned toward the

structure of literature and one turned toward the other cultural phenomena that

form the social enironment of literature" <iterary education should lead not merely to the admiration of great literature, ut to

some possession of its power of utterance. The ultimate aim is an ethical and

participating aim, not an aesthetic or contemplatie one, een though the latter may e

the means of achieing the former. 9rom The Well-Tempered Critic

3iterature cultivates your "conscious life," giving you deeper insight into the use and value of

language.

?iaatista @ico :


http://www.shmoop.com/literature-glossary/rhyme.html

http://www.shmoop.com/literature-glossary/alliteration.html

http://www.shmoop.com/literature-glossary/metaphor.html

http://www.shmoop.com/moby-dick/

http://www.shmoop.com/literature-glossary/syntax.html

http://www.amazon.com/Well-Tempered-Critic-Northrup-Frye/dp/0253200776

http://www.shmoop.com/literature-glossary/rhyme.html

http://www.shmoop.com/literature-glossary/alliteration.html

http://www.shmoop.com/literature-glossary/metaphor.html

http://www.shmoop.com/moby-dick/

http://www.shmoop.com/literature-glossary/syntax.html

http://www.amazon.com/Well-Tempered-Critic-Northrup-Frye/dp/0253200776




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4e actually championed the idea that philosophy had a huge debt to poetry and #as

even deried from poetry. % call him "the first modern thinker to understand that all ma?or

verbal structures have descended historically from poetic and mythological ones"

*-1. 7redriche @ameson module of arody and

astiche

astiche and parody are both examples of %/$/$@5/A3%/B.Hnli%e parody, pastiche celebrates, rather than moc%s, the "or% it imitates. %arody pastiche and theshift from modernism to postmodernism are all terminological minefields.

According to 'ameson a ma#or change in interte!tual practices occurred in the -/0s. $nstead

of parody with its nuanced evaluations of past styles which still function as benchmarks even when the styles are re#ected or transformed we get pastiche. $n this practice the ingrained

awareness of cultural history which marks parody has vanished.

7 P74)#: is a "or% that mimics in an absurd or ridiculous "ay the conventions and style of

another "or% : in order to derive ridicule, ironic comment or affectionate fun.

7ritics defines parody as + any cultural practice "hich provides a relatively polemical allusive

imitation of another cultural production or practice .

8uchamps parody of the 2ona 5isa adds a goatee and moustache. 2ona 5isa by 5eonardo da Jinci

7 P7%TI2"E is + a medley of various ingredients# a hotchpotch, farrago, jumble . $he term

denotes a technique employing a generally light:hearted tongue:in:chee% imitation of anothers style#

although jocular, it is usually respectful as opposed to parody, "hich is notB.

(astiche is prominent in popular culture. 2any genre pieces, particularly in fantasy, are essentially

pastiches. Keorge 5ucas! )tar Wars series is often considered to be a pastiche of traditional science

fiction television serials or radio sho"s.

Parody

An imitative "or% created to moc%, comment on or triviali-e an original "or%, its subject, author,

style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation.

Pastiche

A "or% of visual art, literature, or music that imitates the style or character of the "or% of one or more

other artists. Hnli%e parody, pastiche celebrates, rather than moc%s, the "or% it imitates.

-ample: The movie '!per / is a pastiche of /+0s advent!re films, specifically imitating the style

of 'tephen 'pielberg0s early career, beca!se it celebrates and embraces the style !nironically.

(astiche and (arody are often confused because they both involve imitation, but the easiest "ay to

distinguish the t"o is this* (astiche embraces the imitation through general affection for the source

material, "hereas (arody is meant to moc% and ma%e fun of the source material.

%atire)atire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in "hich vices, follies,





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abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally "ith the intent of shaming individuals,

corporations, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its

greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using "it as a "eapon and as a tool to dra"

attention to both particular and "ider issues in society.

;<. In what ways +eminine different from +emale =

Th!s 0feminine0 represents n!rt!re, and 0female0 nat!re in this !sage, 0&emininity0 is a c!lt!ral constr!ct: one

isn>t born a woman, one becomes one, as %imone de -eauvoir p!ts it

%n Toward a Feminist Poetics

Sho#alter traces the history of #omen's literature, suggesting that it can be divided into three phases:

&. 9eminine: 4n the 9eminine phase (&'2*/&''*), C#omen #rote in an effort to e0ual the

intellectual achievements of the male culture, and internali;ed its assumptions about female

natureD (!ew , &-).

. 9eminist: The 9eminist phase (&''*/&+*) #as characteri;ed by #omen8s #riting that

protested against male standards and values, and advocated #omen8s rights and values, including

a demand for autonomy.

. 9emale: The 9emale phase (&+*B ) is one of self2discovery.

Sho#alter says, “Women Reject Both mitation !nd Protest"Two Forms #f $ependency

"!nd Turn nstead To Female %&perience !s The ource #f !n !utonomous !rt,

%&tending The Feminist !nalysis #f (ulture To The Forms !nd Techni)ues #f

*iterature+

The $ar-ist view of the necessary dialectical relationship between theory and practice also applies to

the relationship between female e-perience and feminist politics.1f the conf!sion of female with

feminist is fra!ght with political pitlfalls. this is no less tr!e of the conse2!cnces of the collapse of

feminine into female. "mong many feminists it has long been established !sage to ma%e 0feminine0

(and 0masc!line0) represent social constr!cts (patterns of se-!ality and behavio!r imposed by c!lt!ral

and social norms), and to reserve 0female0 and 0male0 for the p!rely biological aspccts ofse-!al

difference.3nder patriarchy men will always spea% from a different position than women,and their political strategies m!st ta%e this into acco!nt

Virginia oolf elieve *+ women,s writing is alwa%s feminine- t$e onl% difficult% liwed in defining w$at we means % feminine.

$he feminist struggle, she argues, must be seen historically and politically as a three tiered

one, "hich can be schematically summarised as follo"s*

. Women demand equal access the symbolic order. 5iberal feminism. 3quality.

4. Women reject the male symbolic order in the name difference. 6adical feminism.

'emininity extolled.E. Women reject the dichotomy bet"een masculine and feminine as m7laphysical

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes %1




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*-A. ?hat does :lliot means lemon sBueeCer school of

criticism

#rite a note on 5ew 6riticism or the 5ew School of <iterary6riticism.

1odern literary criticism has a bewildering variety. There are various modes and techni2ues currents and

crosscurrents of criticism in vogue at present. 3riticism has been influenced by new discoveries and researches in

the field of sciences anthropology sociology psychology %hilosophy and linguistics.

New Criticism

y the late thirties both psychoanalytic and sociological criticisms had

lost much of their vogue and many of the younger critics turned +for guidance to a group that

has since come to be known as the 4ew 3ritics. These 4ew 3ritics are mainly the followers of

T. S. 5liot but they have also been deeply influenced by 3oleridge *enry 'ames 56ra %ound

and $. A. 7ichards. This 4ew 3riticism flourished in the forties and fifties. The most

important critics of this school were 'ohn 3rowe 7anson Allen Tate 7obert %enn 8arren

and 7. %. lackmur.

he !hief Ideal "efore he New !ritics #as o Free $iterature From

he %ressure &nd !ompetition 'f cience. They asserted that content and form are separable

9that +the content of a poem could be located only in the specific dynamics of the form.+ They

tried to read a poem as a poem and were antihistorical.New Criticism was decidedly an American movement. ut a reaction had set

against it under the leadership of 7onald S. 3rane of the niversity of 3hicago. he Chicago

!chool of Critics known as neo"Aristotelians insisted upon a return to 2uestions of

design and structure.

The New Critics have been criticised by Lionel Trilling for neglecting the historical

sense.

8hile analysing a poem a play or a work of literature the New Critics very often

laid stress on ambig#ity, irony, parado$ and tension%

$n fiction they stressed upon +the point of view+ and the metaphoric use of language.

3ritics like 3leanth rooks and 8illiam 5mpson indulged in elaborating their comple!ities of

interpretation without caring for the meanings imposed by history. $n fiction they laid

emphasis on symbolism. They contributed for the refinement of critical sensibility.

The 4ew 3ritics treated all literary works as if they were lyrics. Sometimes they provided

monolithic readings that stiffen the poem into a moral allegory. $n general they seem to

believe that criticism can or should become an impersonal techni2ue approaching theprecision of science.

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes %%

http://neoenglishsystem.blogspot.in/2010/12/write-note-on-new-criticism-or-new.html







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T. S. 5liot calls it +the lemons2uee6er school of criticism."

According to $. ). 3liot & t$e function of criticism is t$e e"position and elucidation of art and also correction of taste& and t$ere% promoting understanding and en/o%ment of art

A good critic must be impersonal and obective, and must not be guided by his 5innervoice, but by authority outside himself . =y this he meant tradition.

A critic must be learned not only in the literature of his o"n country but also in the literature

of 3urope, from &omer to his o"n day. &o"ever, he must not judge the present by the

standards of the past, as the requirements of each age are different, and so the canons must

change from age to age.

Cext, he should have a highly developed 5sense of fact. =y this, 3liot does not mean

biographical or sociological %no"ledge, but %no"ledge of the technical details of a poem, its

genesis, its setting etc. It is these facts that a critic must use to appreciate a "or% of art.

&o"ever, Eliot is against the 5lemon s9uee?er school of critics.

(ractitioners of poetry ma%e the best critics. )uch poet critics have a thorough %no"ledge and

understanding of the process of poetic creation, and so they are in the best position to

communicate their o"n understanding to the audience.

Again, comparison and analysis are the chief tools of a critic.

&e must compare not to pass judgment but to elucidate the qualities of the "or%.

$hroughout, the (ublication of @The +unction of 2riticism. essay demonstrates the influences 3liot had on

the Ce" 7ritics. While 3liot states early on that he failed to see "hy he "as deemed by current literary

scholarship to have given birth to Ce" 7riticism 1LB, he also uses the essay as a platform from "hich to proclaim a number of principles that are quite similar to those of the Ce" 7ritics*

. the idea of the circumstances surrounding a "or%s creation as irrelevant

4. the Mdanger . . . of assuming that there must be just one interpretation of the poem as a "hole, NandO that

it must be rightM EB

E. the lac% of a need to assess the authors intent

F. the unimportance of the MfeelingsM of the reader

<. the limitation of literary criticism to the study of the literary object, i.e., the "or% itself

&o"ever, at the same time, 3liot ta%es the opportunity to disavo" that school of criticism. &e ridicules one

of the methods of Ce" 7riticism, %no"n today as close reading, describing it thus*

$he method is to ta%e a "ell:%no"n poem . . . "ithout reference to the author or to his other "or%, analyse

it stan-a by stan-a and line by line, and extract, squee-e, tease, press every drop of meaning out of it that one

can. It might be called the lemon:squee-er school of criticism. . . . I imagine that some of the poets they are all

dead except myselfB "ould be surprised at learning "hat their poems mean . .

3liot is here giving voice to one of the most common objections to Ce" 7riticism, namely that it removes all the

enjoyment from a "or% of literature by dissecting it. $his essay strongly asserts that enjoyment is an important

component of the reading of literature. 3liot ma%es no distinction bet"een Menoyment and understanding,@

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes %'

http://ardhendude.blogspot.in/search/label/Criticism



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanza

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissection





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanza





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seeing the t"o not Mas distinct activitiesPone emotional and the other intellectual. $o understand a poem comes

to the same thing as to enjoy it for the right reasonsM .

En the #hole 0uestion of en"oyment , $liot diverges from the general trend of e# 5riticism,

#hich primarily concerned itself #ith interpretation. $liot further distances himself from the e# 5ritics #ith

his implication of the possibility of misunderstanding a poem , an idea that the e# 5ritics #ould consider

heretical.

&1@! Art is a substitute 0rati)cation -.(EQs

Comment R

.reud #laces art and #atholo0y to0ether as com#arable strate0ies of

ada#tionfor artists and neurotics!In an Autobio0ra#hical Study .reud o>ers

a midecal dia0nosis of ho/ the ima0ination allo/s the libido to 0et

around the res#ecti2e demands of reality! =here ar #assa0es in /chich

freud su00ests Art is a substitute 0rati)cation and science a di2ersion!At

the end of the t/enty third introductory lecture freud o>ered a brief

#sycholo0y of art!G=he ArtistGhe saidG/ants to attain honor#o/er/ealth

and the lo2e of /omenObut he lac,s the means to reach theses

satisfactionsG!

Structure of art is 2icarious itself!

;A. E#*74# %7I# )1 BE4671 71# 71B8) +4E12" )4IE1T78I%6 =

Orientalism, the late dward 4. 'aid5s magn!m op!s of literary criticism and polemic, is a

boo% that attracts both passionate ad!lation and vitriolic criticism. 6!ring his lifetime,

beca!se of his persona as a p!blic intellect!al and his steady o!tp!t of no7holds7barred critic

Orientalism, as defined by 'aid, is 8a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on

the Orient5s special place in !ropean 4estern e-perience,9 and he notes that, 8The Orient is one of !rope5s; deepest and most rec!rring images of the Other.9





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<e contin!es, 8Orientalism is a style of tho!ght based !pon an ontological and

epistemological distinction made between =the Orient5 and (most of the time) =the Occident.59

; Orientalism, as a body of prod!ced %nowledge, 8is>and does not simply represent>a

considerable dimension of modern political7intellect!al c!lt!re, and as s!ch has less to dowith the Orient than it does with =o!r world.59

+; 1t is a 8created body of theory and practice in which, for many generations, there has

been a considerable material investment.9

; 'aid dots other definitions of what he means by 8Orientalism9 thro!gho!t the boo%, and

his belief in the connection between the prod!ction of %nowledge and (state) power is far from

s!btle: 8Orientalism?is %nowledge of the Orient that places things Oriental in class, co!rt,

prison, or man!al for scr!tiny, st!dy, @!dgment, discipline, or governing.9

*; "lso, he states: 8Orientalism is better grasped as a set of constraints !pon and

limitations of tho!ght than it is simply as a positive doctrine,9 and 8?Orientalism was

!ltimately a political vision of reality whose str!ct!re promoted the difference between the

familiar (!rope, the 4est, =!s5) and the strange (the Orient, the ast, 8them9).9

A; 'aid claims that when not !sed to describe the whole of "sia, the term 8=Orient5?was

most rigoro!sly !nderstood as applying to the 1slamic Orient.9

B; This claim is contrary to my own e-perience as an 8Oriental9 who clearly hails from

ast "sian heritage. This claim is also interesting considering that ritish colonialism in

1ndia predates similar involvement in the 81slamic9 $iddle astDOrient, to !se 'aid5s

terminology. Th!s, it is somewhat strange to c!t off 8the Orient9 at the 81slamic9 (Central

"rab) $iddle ast and gypt, e-cl!ding most of what lies east of 1ra2 and west of gypt.

&inally, for 'aid, the Orientalist attit!de toward the Oriental (s!b@ect) peoples was one of

condescension and s!periority, as e-emplified by the ritish viceroy #ord Cromer in late

nineteenth cent!ry gypt, who believed that 8Orientals9 simply do not %now what is best for

them and th!s re2!ire !ropean co!nsel and g!idanceism

;CD. E#*74# %7I# )1 BE4671 71# 71B8) +4E12" =

In the /L1s and !;1s, a number of scholars began to pay careful attention to Kerman cultural

constructions of the +Qrient in the literary and philosophical "or%s from the =aroque period

to 6omanticism.i &o"ever, "ith the publication of Orientalism /;0B, dward 'aid5s

analytical framewor% became, for good or ill, the dominant scholarly paradigm. 1n the wa%e

of the appearance of 'aid5s vol!me, a decade or more passed before the scholarship on





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pop!lar or academic Orientalism in Eermany attempted to move beyond what 'aid had

intitially said on the s!b@ect.

$he purpose of this essay is to consider the exceptionalism of Kerman Qrientalism, one that

employs imagery of the Qrient for very different purposes than the 'rench and =ritish

variants.

The central 9uestion under consideration regards the utilit% of this imagery in the

tradition of Berman )rientalism. $he construction of the idea of the Qrient in Kerman

thought and literature in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, I argue, did not

allo" Kerman thin%ers to identify "ith the dominant po"ers of "estern 3urope, but rather

"ith the Qriental Qther. In other "ords, they "ere engaged in a process of self0)thering.

Qne hesitates to describe Kerman Qrientalism as being +special in light of the imposing

tradition of arguments over the Sonderweg thesis.

Ce" light might be shed on a different variant of Qrientalism by comparing the Kerman

phenomenon "ith Irish Qrientalism, as described by 9oseph 5ennon* +to study Irish "ritings

on the Qrient ... is also to study Irish cultural narratives of antiquity, 7elticism, and nation

$he image of the Qrient "ith "hich they identified "as, of course, one of their o"n ma%ing.$o argue that these Kerman thin%ers identified "ith the oriental victims of "estern

imperialism is not to argue that they "ere, in reality, such victims. Cor is it to argue that this

identification came as a result of any genuine engagement "ith or understanding of the

+Qther "ith "hom they sought to identify.

Self'0t$ering& as it is descried elow& was a curious r$etorical strateg% w$ic$

involved two distinct forms or acts of 0t$ering1 imaginative constructions of the

oriental Qther "ith "hom one could identify and the "estern imperial Qther, against

"hom one "as see%ing to construct an identity.ii =oth the Indian and "estern 3uropean

Qthers could be made to serve as the ideal mirrors for thin%ers "ho "ished to see

themselves, and their country, at t"ice their natural si-e.

As a rhetorical strategy, self0)thering has some note"orthy historical precedents in

2ichel de 2ontaigne!s essay +Qn 7annibals and =artolemR de 5as 7asas!s 'hort

"cco!nt of the 6estr!ction of the 1ndies, both composed in the sixteenth century.

2ontaigne "as "riting in reaction to the devastation of the Wars of 6eligion in

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes %D




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'rance, "hile 5as 7asas "as issuing his condemnation of the inhumanity of )panish

imperialism. =oth authors, ho"ever, "ere ta%ing advantage of the blan% canvas that

had been provided by the Ce" World in order to level their critiques of contemporary

3uropean society.

$he difficulty of dealing "ith Kerman Qrientalism begins, naturally enough, "ith

)aid himself. In the Introduction to Orientalism, he "rote that despite the fact that by

about 0E1 Kerman scholarship had fully attained its 3uropean pre:eminence ... at no

time in Kerman scholarship during the first t"o:thirds of the nineteenth century could

a close partnership have developed bet"een Qrientalists and a protracted sustained

national interest in the Qrient. $here "as nothing in Kermany to correspond to the

Anglo:'rench presence in India, the 5evant, Corth Africa.

+What Kerman Qriental scholarship did, he continued, +"as to refine and elaborate

techniques "hose application "as to texts, myths, ideas, and languages almost literally

gathered from the Qrient by imperial =ritain and 'rance. If there could be no

+sustained national interest in the Qrient# if +there "as nothing in Kermany to

correspond to the Anglo:'rench presence in India, the 5evant, Corth Africa, ho" then

did Kerman Qrientalism fit into )aid!s larger thesis@ )aid continued, +"hat Kerman

Qrientalism had in common "ith Anglo:'rench and latter American Qrientalism "as a

kind of intellectual aut$orit% over the Qrient "ithin Western culture. $his authority

must in large part be the subject of any description of Qrientalism, and it is so in this

study. $he Kerman thin%er of this era that )aid pays the most attention to is Koethe,

"hose role in "hat )ch"ab calls the +Qriental 6enaissance "as, to be generous,

minimal.

Qne of the central contentions of )aid!s argument is the claim that +the Qrient has

helped define 3urope or the WestB as its contrasting image, idea, personality,

experience Orientalism D4B. In the case of numerous Berman Indophiles of the

late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries this speculation simply does not hold

true. $he remar%able degree of identification of Kerman thin%ers "ith India has

already been suggested and verified in considerable detail "ith regard to "erder,

7dam 6ller, and 3oseph BFrrres among others. In the follo"ing discussion I "ill

focus on the case of 'riedrich )chlegel. With the publication of his 2er die Sprac$e !nd eis$eit de r

Indier N0n t$e Language and isdom of t$e Indians G in 010, %chlegel emerged as the

first serious student of )ans%rit and Indian thought in Kermany. )chlegel is a

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes %B




___________________________________________________________________________

particularly important figure since his arguments in that essay opened the door to the

establishment of )ans%rit studies and academic Indology in Kermany. It is also "orth

adding, though it "ill not come in for consideration here, that )chlegel, far more than

&erder before him, first introduced "hat "e might call +racial speculation into his

"ritings on IndiaPa precedent "ith a painful legacy.

India first entered into 'riedrich )chlegel!s thin%ing in the late ;/1s, most

li%ely as a result of the extraordinary popularity of Keorg 'orster!s translation of

Hlidsas drama 3a4untal5 (JA!, and the Indian themes developed in the "or% of

his close friend Covalis. Along "ith Covalis, )chlegel!s primary interest in this period

"as the articulation of a stri%ingly bold conception of modern art and poetry, and it

"as in this context that India first struc% him as a source of inspiration. )chlegel!s

earliest interest in India "as part of an aesthetic projectPthe +ne" bible or ne"

mythologyP"ith only obliquely political implications. &o"ever, from the outset

)chlegel "as concerned "ith establishing an affinity, even a deeper connection

bet"een Qriental and Kerman cultural traditions.

In his6espr7c$ 8er Poesie K Dialogue on Poetr%G (;//B, he contended that after the fall of

the 6oman 3mpire, 3uropean literature had been resuscitated by the +heroic poetry of

the 2iddle Ages, a tradition that had its roots in the Kerman people F&'" 11 4/LB.

$he +"ild energy of Kothic poetry "as influenced, he claimed, by +charming

fairytales of the Qrient, an influence introduced by contact "ith Arab culture.

0ccident'logspotcom90:I!;#+L ;0#!S on 6!:M+; and F:!;C< 0:I!;#+LISM

)aid!s sharp focus only on =ritish and 'rench, and to a lesser degree American, Qrientalism is

one of the %ey criticisms that is often raised about his approach in Qrientalism. &e defends his

decision, saying that he chose to focus primarily on =ritish and 'rench scholarship about the

Qrient because those t"o countries too% the first +major steps in Qriental scholarship, and

that there scholarship "as later +elaborated upon by the Kermans.

KLG )aid argues that Kermany lac%ed, +NaO national interest in the Qrient and thus "as not an

example of Qrientalism as he defines it.

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes %@




___________________________________________________________________________

&e did ac%no"ledgeGclaim though that, +?"hat Kerman Qrientalism had in common "ith

Anglo:'rench and later American Qrientalism "as a %ind of intellectual authority over the

Qrient "ithin Western culture.

KCDG It is interesting here to note )aid!s rather generic use of the descriptive +Western,

considering that he claims in Qrientalism!s ne" after"ord that such a term refers to +no stable

reality.

KCG Qther critics have noted that )aid is inconsistent in his use of the term +Qrient,

fluctuating bet"een the position that it is a fiction and the position that it has been

+misrepresented by the Qrientalists.

In one of the more recent critiques of Qrientalism, the =ritish Qrientalist and Arabist 6obert

Ir"in contends that )aid!s explanation decision to largely ignore Kerman Qrientalism is built

upon spurious claims. 8espite Ir"in!s often caustic tone throughout his boo%, "hich is part

criticism of Qrientalism and sometimes of )aid himselfB and part a history, quite fascinating

and overdue it must be said, of 3uropean Qriental )tudies, he brings up some valid issues and

points to several errors of fact made by )aid in the passage quoted from Qrientalism above*

$o )aid!s "ay of thin%ing, since =ritain "as the leading imperial po"er in modern times, it

follo"s that it must have been the leading centre for Qriental studies and, since Kermany had

no empire in the Arab lands, it follo"ed that Kermany!s contribution to Qriental studies must

have been of secondary importance. =ut?the claim that Kermans elaborated only on =ritish

and 'rench Qrientalism is simply not sustainable. 7onsider the cases of Nthe Kerman

QrientalistsO &ammer:(urgstall, 'leischer, Wellhausen, Kold-iher &ungarian, but "riting and

teaching in KermanB, CSlde%e and =ec%er. It is impossible to find =ritish forerunners for

these figures. $he reverse is much easier to demonstrate. We have seen ho" much Cicholson!s

5iterary &istory of the Arabs, Wright!s Arabic Krammar, 5yall!s translation of Arabic poetry,

and 7o"an!s Arabic:3nglish 8ictionary explicitly o"ed to Kerman scholarship. $hese "or%s

are not marginal, but central to Arabic studies in =ritain. Is it really possible that =ritish

scholars "ere mista%en in their belief that they needed to follo" Kerman scholars of Arabic

and Islam@ And "hy did 6enan, "hom )aid believes to have been a major 'rench Qrientalist,

believe that Kermans dominated the field@ And "hat about the over"helming pre:eminence of

Kerman scholars in )ans%rit studies@





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KCCG )aid differentiates thus bet"een =ritish and 'rench Qrientalism* +=ritish Qriental

expertise fashioned itself around consensus and orthodoxy and sovereign authority# 'rench

Qriental expertise bet"een the N"orldO "ars concerned itself "ith heterodoxy, spiritual ties,

eccentrics.

KCMG &is primary examples to support this vie" are the =ritish Qrientalist )ir &amilton Kibb

and the 'rench 7atholic Qrientalist 5ouis 2assignon, "hose boo% on the medieval =aghdadi

)ufi 2ansur al:&allaj is filled "ith 6oman 7atholic motifs. Ir"in is critical of )aid!s

generali-ation of 3uropean Qrientalism, and ta%es him to tas% for ignoring or glossing over

major Qrientalist scholars "ho do not fit his paradigm, such as the pioneering American

scholar 2arshall K. ). &odgson and the 5ebanese:=ritish Arab Qrientalist Albert &ourani.

)imilarly, one could also bring up the 5ebanese historian (hilip T. &itti, the founder of

(rinceton Hniversity!s 8epartment of Cear 3astern )tudies, "hich is coincidentally "here

=ernard 5e"is holds an emeritus professorship. In the one brief, superficial reference to &itti,

)aid praises him for leading a department devoted to scholarship and teaching, as opposed to

the &arvard department Kibb "as in, "hich, according to )aid, too% a more policy:oriented

approach.

KCNGIr"in is also critical of )aid!s failure to substantively address either 6ussian or 5atin

Qrientalism. With regard to 6ussian scholarship, he remar%s, +?if one "ants to give full and

proper consideration to the relationship bet"een Qrientalism and imperialism, then one should

turn to 6ussia "ith its vast empire of 2uslim subjects in the 7aucasus and 7entral Asia. Co

history of Qrientalism can be regarded as serious if it has totally neglected the contribution of

the 6ussians.

N4<O )aid!s neglect of Qrientalist scholarship in 5atin may, argues Ir"in, explain "hy he has

such difficulty pinpointing a precise start date for Qrientalism, as he ignores some of the

earliest 3uropean "or%s, "hich "ere all "ritten in 5atin.

N4LO.7ritics of Qrientalism also ta%e issue "ith )aid!s some"hat arbitrary and often unsure,

they argue, choice of dating "ith regard to the +beginnings of Qrientalism. )aid himself

seems to settle on Capoleon I!s arrival in 2amlu% 3gypt in ;/0 as the start of a sustained

+Qrientalism. According to )aid, Capoleon launched a full:scale Qrientalist project "hile in





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3gypt "here he sought to document information and connect "ith the locals as a defender of

Islam.

N4;O 'urther, it is clear that )aid sees 'rance!s time in 3gypt ;/0:01, though =onaparte

himself secretly left in ;//B as a major milestone in the history of Qrientalism* +After

Capoleon?the very language of Qrientalism changed radically. Its descriptive realism "as

upgraded and became not merely a style of representation but a language, indeed a means of

creation.

/erry 7agleton: nderstanding Frecht (6ay &G-)

!&. 746 T87ATR7 #as primarily proposed by Fertolt Frecht #ho suggested that

a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally #ith the characters or action before him or her,

but should instead provoke rational self2reflection and a critical vie# of the action on the stage. Frecht

thought that the experience of a climactic catharsis of emotion left an audience complacent. %nstead, he

#anted his audiences to adopt a critical perspective in order to recognise social in?ustice and exploitationand to be moved to go forth from the theatre and effect change in the #orld outside. !or this purpose,

Frecht employed the use of techni0ues that remind the spectator that the play is a representation of

reality and not reality itself. Fy highlighting the constructed nature of the theatrical event, Frecht hoped to

communicate that the audience's reality #as e0ually constructed and, as such, #as changeable.

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes '1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climax_(narrative)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatheatre





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis






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,ertolt ,recht )elie-e$ that #hilst theatre &ro-i$e$

entertainment for the s&ectator it shoul$ also en*a*e the

s&ectator’s reasonin* rather than their feelin*s! Therefore.

he use$ a $ialectic theatre that intellectually en*a*e$ his

au$ience throu*h metho$s that echoe$ Mar+’s theory. namely that man an$ society shoul$ )e re/e+amine$ in or$er to

create an e0ual society!

1The tas2 of theatre is not to 3re4ect’ a %+e$ reality. )ut to

$emonstrate ho# character an$ action are historically

&ro$uce$. an$ so ho# they coul$ ha-e )een. an$ still can )e.

$i5erent !6

History

$pic theatre #as a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid2Hth century from the theories and

practice of a number of theatre practitioners #ho #ere responding to the political climate of the time through

the creation of a ne# political theatre.

$pic theatre #as a reaction against popular forms of theatre, particularly the naturalistic approach pioneered

by 5onstantin Stanislavski. 3ike Stanislavski, Frecht disliked the shallo# spectacle, manipulative plots, and

heightened emotion of melodrama

Techniques

Ene of the most important techni0ues Frecht developed to perform epic theater is the erfremdungseffekt,

or the "alienation" effect. The purpose of this techni)ue was to mae the audience feel detached

from the action of the play, so they do not become immersed in the fictional reality of the stage or

become o-erly empathetic of the character . !looding the theater #ith bright lights (not ?ust the stage),

having actors play multiple characters, having actors also rearrange the set in full vie# of the audience and

"breaking the fourth #all" by speaking to the audience are all #ays he used to achieve the

erfremdungseffekt.

As "ith the principle of dramatic construction involved in the epic form of spo%en drama

amalgamated or "hat =recht calls Mnon:Aristotelian dramaM, the epic approach to play

production utili-es a montage technique of fragmentation, contrast and contradiction,

andinterruptions.

3ach scene, and each section "ithin a scene, must be perfected and played as rigorously and

"ith as much discipline as if it "ere a short play, complete in itself. Without any smudges.

And "ithout there being the slightest suggestion that another scene, or section "ithin a scene,

is to follo" those that have gone before

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes '%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_movement


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth-century_theatre


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_practitioners


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_(theatre)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Stanislavski


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melodrama


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distancing_effect


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aristotelian_drama

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interruptions_(epic_theatre)









https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aristotelian_drama


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interruptions_(epic_theatre)




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=recht used comedy to distance his audiences from the depicted events and "as heavily

influenced by musicals and fairground performers, putting music and song in his plays.

Terry Eagleton argues that -ertolt -recht regards any attempt to define the literary

work as 5spontaneous whole which reconciles the capitalist contradictions between

essence and appearance, concrete and abstract, individual and social whole, as a

reactionary nostalgia. (Eagleton, CDDC, <O! The "egelian and 6ar&ist prints are very

obvious here in emphasi?ing the role of the dialectical struggle of the opposites to

generate a synthesis, which is usually left for the spectators themselves to formulate. The

issue of hegemony and consent in the -rechtian plays always provokes the audience to

find a synthesis out of this dialectical struggle between the thesis and anti0thesis, which is

usually a 5revolution.

=ertolt =recht!s aggressive political idealism and determination in using art to pose

challenging questions about the conflicts bet"een society and morality generated intense

controversy throughout his lifetime. $echnically, by his late t"enties, =recht had begun to

visuali-e a ne" theatrical system that "ould serve his political and artistic sensibility. &e sa"

the stage as an ideological forum for leftist causes and "anted to create theater that depicted

human experience "ith the brutality and intensity of a boxing match. &e rejected the

conventions of stage realism and Aristotelian drama, "hich offer empathetic identification

"ith a hero and emotional catharsis. =recht did not "ant his audience to feel, but rather to be

shoc%ed, intellectually stimulated, and motivated to ta%e action against an unjust society and

to a"a%en them to social responsibility.

)uch simplicity may be the effect of the fact that =recht only insists on the baseGsuperstructure

distinction as $erry 3agleton asserts in his Ideology* An Introduction. $he statement as such is

manifested in the "ay 3agleton attempts to sho" =recht as standing against the idea of MselfhoodM as MreceivedM. $he MselfhoodM as a consequence becomes the Mideological illusionM

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes ''

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_(drama)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_(drama)





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that is imposed on peoples minds. $he %ind of Mreceived identityM that =recht describes is

actually the product of the superstructures.

Although 3agleton as the representative of so many other 2arxists

underestimates =rechts vulgar 2arxism, the field of "estern 2arxism itself: as enjoying a

more philosophically accomplished scholarship: is replete "ith contradictions that emerge in

the "or%s of its "ell:%no"n practitioners. $he contradiction, on the other hand, might be one

of the important elements that bind the "estern 2arxists due to the expanded topography of

the field itself.

$he main contradiction in the field of "estern 2arxism o"es to the

&egelian pedigree of its forefathers. According to $ony =ennett, the "estern 2arxists see

2arx through &egelian lens as an example "e can turn to 5u%acs "hose treatment of the

&egelian concept of M$otalityM as the other to ideology proves to be quite idealistic . $he

escape from idealism, ho"ever, seems to be a far:fetched dream of every 2arxist, a dream

that has never come true.

$he analysis of this play not only helps the reader to identify =recht as an illuminating

rather than simplistic play"right but also introduces the bridge bet"een =rechts drama and

his 2arxism. When analy-ing "or%s of =recht, one does not have to do much to %eep her distance from the -one of complexity in that the dar% times =recht lived in demanded a

response that needed to be more MurgentM than complicated as Taren 5eeder observes.

*. @ohnsons comments on the three unities

Some critics have reservation about the norm of three unities in a

dramatic plot regarding the &ristotelian view. =hey accuse Sha,es#eare of 2iolatin0 the norm at least at t/o re0ards! =hey )nd Sha,es#earean #lays lac,in0





___________________________________________________________________________

the unities of time and #lace /hich had lon0 been reco0niHed by Critics and

dramatists as essential requirements! ut ohnson thou0ht a little bit other /ise!

In his consideration Sha,es#eares history #lays not come under the re2ie/ of

this la/ of three unities because their 2ery nature /hich essentially referred to a

chronolo0ical re#lacement of times and #laces! In other #lays Sha,es#eare has

lar0ely #reser2ed the unity of action! ?is maintainin0 the structure of a dramatic#lot- #ro2idin0 a be0innin0 middle and an end ser2es for Sha,es#eares

a/areness of the artistic necessity of #lot construction! ery lo0ically the

dramatist arran0es the connection and coherence of the incidents /hich 2ery

naturally )nds a 0radual de2elo#ment!

=he historical bac,0round on the obser2ance of three unities had the foundation

on t/o basic #rinci#les one su00ested that /ithout them no #lay can attain

credibility! ut neither of the 2ie/ers had the reasonable su##ort!

/he classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities are rules for drama derived from a passage

in Aristotle's #oetics. &ccording to @ohnson, the unities of time and place are

not essential for good play. =hey may add to the #leasure of beauty but

ne0lect may #ro2ide more! As the hi0hest 0races of a #lay intends to co#y nature

instruct life the obser2ance of the unities of time and #lace becomes the #roduct

of su#eruous and sho/iness art!

Suspension of disbelieve is an essential for a 0ood drama! ohnson admits the

a/areness of the s#ectators disbelief /hich is mostly sub-conscience and

sus#ended! In this re0ard Colerid0e #oints out that se2eral dramatic de2ices may

#ro2e unnecessary of illusion! ?e ar0ues that it the re3ection of unities of time

and #lace is acce#ted then /hat is the use of dressin0 u# after the medie2al royal

customs! Colerid0e can be refuted on certain 0rounds! ;ithout this de2ice a #lay

can rarely o>er any real diculty to the ima0ination /hich is only a /in0ed

creature not a snail! ?ere a0ain @ohnsonEs attac4 on the unities remains

one of the nest and wittiest things in his criticism. Later forms of

e3pressive arts, including movies, in the modern age have presented

the unworthiness of the device.

7ohnson can )e re*ar$e$ to ha-e a $i5erent out loo2 amon* the neo/classical

scholars! Neo classical al#ays seems to *lorify aca$emic -alues in critics

acce&ts Sha2es&eare’s -iolation of unities an$ also the min*lin* of tra*ic an$

comic elements as li)eratin* i$eolo*ies! 8n this re*ar$ 7ohnson is &ioneer of

them #ho ha$ the e5orts to ma2e intelli*ence li)erate$! 7ohnson is accuse$ of

)ein*

1an outri*ht $issenter a*ainst the neo classic rules an$ &ro&rieties6

)ut is also a si*nal in the #orl$ of criticism of the enhance of conce&t an$

-ie#s!


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetics_(Aristotle)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama






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Johnson claims that with Shakespeare's histories, the unites of time, place, and action are largely

irrelevant since, in his plays, "the changes of action be so prepared as to be understood, that the

incidents be various and affecting, and the characters consistent, natural and distinct. No other

unity is intended, and therefore none is to be sought."

With his other works (comedies and tragedies), Johnson adds that Shakespeare sustains the

unity of action; even when the events are out of order or superfluous, Shakespeare does stick to

Aristotle's linear progression of having a discernible beginning, middle, and end.

In terms of time and place, the law of the unities states that for a play to be credible (believable),

the events of the play should be limited to a particular place and the time limited to 24 hours.

Otherwise, the audience will have trouble suspending disbelief (believing the events could

happen) which is to say the audience will have trouble forgetting that they are watching a play.

Johnson counters this by saying that all plays are plays:

The truth is, that the spectators are always in their senses, and know, from the first act to the last,

that the stage is only a stage, and that the players are only players.

Therefore, these limitations based on being credible to the audience can not be applied. Johnson

also adds that the pleasure of watching theater is that it is fictional; it is not necessary that they

have to believe it could happen: "The delight of tragedy proceeds from our consciousness of

fiction; if we thought murders and treasons real, they would please no more."

Johnson adds that "the unities of time and place are not essential to a just drama . . . " and that

simply sticking to the rules does not make a drama good. That which makes Shakespeare's plays

"just" is how deeply they apply to human nature. This is perhaps the most significant praise in the

essay. For Johnson, there is something true and universal about Shakespeare's appreciation of

human nature and this is what makes him timeless. Johnson notes that: "This therefore is the

praise of Shakespeare, that his drama is the mirror of life . . . "

Johnson does fault Shakespeare for focusing too much on the convenience of the storyline,

therefore ignoring the use of his plays as instruction (showing how good could/should triumph

over evil). But overall, it is Shakespeare's ability to copy nature (art imitating life), being believable

or unbelievable, that makes any of Shakespeare's so called faults irrelevant.

7. #ordsworth: The 9unction of oetry

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes 'D

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDkQFjAEahUKEwj0suGh3qPIAhUDxI4KHYpIBF4&url=http%3A%2F%2Feducationcing.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F07%2Fwordsworth-function-of-poetry.html&usg=AFQjCNF3FoH8hWEjFsxv6PNwwBML2dmgng&sig2=FGuKGom2-_6KJTOND8pIQw

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDkQFjAEahUKEwj0suGh3qPIAhUDxI4KHYpIBF4&url=http%3A%2F%2Feducationcing.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F07%2Fwordsworth-function-of-poetry.html&usg=AFQjCNF3FoH8hWEjFsxv6PNwwBML2dmgng&sig2=FGuKGom2-_6KJTOND8pIQw




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In the #reface to the Lyrical allads ;ords/orth also discusses the

function of #oetry!

The function of *reat &oetry is 9to &lease. to mo-e. an$ to

trans&ort!9

=he three functions of #oetry fuse into an aesthetic #leasure /ith moral

ele2ation! ?o/e2er the moral ele2ation far out/ei0hs the aesthetic

#leasure! =he moral function consists

-. rst in the renement of feelings,. second, in the 4nowledge of 2an, 6ature, and 8uman life,

and/. third, in the power that ma4es life richer and fuller.

F%ruth, Grandeur, Heauty, Love and 8ope,&nd melancholy 7ear subdued by 7aith.F

=he reader of #oetry emer0es saner and #urer than before! =he

second 0reat function of #oetry is to enable us to loo, into the life of

things. ;hile science shar#ens our intellect #oetry enriches our moral

insi0ht! =he moral force of #oetry Tis felt in the blood and felt alon0 the

heartT! So ;ords/orth says$

9:oetry is the )reath an$ %ner s&irit of all 2no#le$*e; it is the

im&assione$ e+&ression #hich is in the countenance of all science!9

.inally #oetry #ro2ides shelter and succor to the aUicted human

soul! It is a 0reat force for 0ood and /elfare! ;ords/orthTs o/n ob3ect in

/ritin0 #oetry /as

#to console the a$icte%& to a%% s"nshine to %ay light y making

the happy happier& to teach the yo"ng an% the gracio"s of

e'ery age to see( to think( an% feel( an% therefore to ecome

more acti'ely an% sec"rely 'irt"o"s)#

=hus ;ords/orth concludes that

<e-ery *reat &oet is a teacher; 8 #ish either to )e consi$ere$ as a

teacher or as nothin*<! 8n this role &oetry ma2es man 9#iser.

)etter an$ ha&&ier9

8ordsworth+s Theory of %oetry %f the publication of $yrical %allads marks the climax of the omantic evolt, it is because of its importance as a

gesture of revolt against the existing poetic practices. %n his #reface to the second edition >ords#orth explained

in detail #hat his theories about ne# poetry #ere and #hat #as to be looked for in his o#n poems. /he immediate

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes 'B




___________________________________________________________________________

purpose of the #reface #as to defend his poems against Cthe charges of lo#ness and unpoeticalness that had

been made against both their sub?ects and their dictionD to use the #ords of 9raham 4ough. /he overall intention

of >ords#orth #as t#o2fold, that is, to relate poetry as closely as possible to common life, by removing it in the

first place from the realm of fantasy, and in the second by changing it from the polite or over2sophisticated

amusement to a serious art. .

According to him, poetry should be Cthe spontaneous oerflow of powerful feelings,D not mere satisfaction of a

taste for imagery and ornament. >ords#orth8s aim in all this is to sho# that the poet is a man appealing to the

normal interests of mankind, not as a peculiar being appealing to a speciali;ed taste. 4e says:

.e is a man speaing to men/ a man, it is true, endowed with more li-ely sensibility, more enthusiasm and

tenderness, who has a greater nowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensi-e soul, than are

supposed to be common among manind0 a man pleased with his own passions and -olitions, who

rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him0 delighted to contemplate similar -olitions

and passions as manifested in the goings1on of the 2ni-erse, and habitually impelled to create them

where he does not find them3+

4n his reface #ordsworth made four claims:

&. first, Cto choose incidents and situations from common lifeDE

. second, Cto relate or descrie them throughout, as far as was possile in a selection of language

really used y menDE

0. third, Cto throw oer them a certain colouring of imagination, wherey ordinary things should e

presented to the mind in an unusual aspectDE and,

2. last, Caoe all, to make these incidents and situations interesting y tracing in them, truly

though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature.D The greater part of the reface is

deoted to Fustification of the first two claims, and this has caused too much stress to e laid on

them while the fact remains that it is on the last two claims that the greatness of his poetry rests.

T87 -7T46 <A5?=A?7 of the eighteenth century #as unreal, and its substance #as far from being an

interpretation of the universal spirit of man. >ords#orth did inestimable service in insisting on a ne# and true

orientation. Fut he #ent too far he said that rustic life and language #ere the simplest and purest being

elementary, in close touch #ith nature, and unspoiled by social vanity. /he fact remains that the rustic has little

originality, fe# ideas, and makes almost no attempt to correlate them.

%t is also true that >ords#orth proposed to prune it of peculiarities but, as 5oleridge

observed, this #ould render it the same as the language of any other section of the community similarly treated.

>ords#orth also asserted that the language of poetry differs in no #ay from that of prose, #ith the single

exception of metre. /his is the controversy that still rages and >ords#orth8s finest poetry does not sho# anyinfluence of this idea. ?eoffrey 8. 6rump has stated categorically that

C4n his greatest poems he forgot his theories, or the poems are great enough to dwarf the

theories into insignificance, and in his later works he intentionally discarded them.D

>ords#orth #as a complete innovator #ho sa# things in a ne# #ay. /hose #ho approach his poetry for the first

time notice t#o peculiarities I its austerity and its appearance of triviality. %t is so in the case of those #ho fail to

see the 0uality of really human sympathy. Fesides, >ords#orth himself is responsible for inviting this sort of

response, as he had no relish for the present. Shelley said about him that Che #as hardly a man, but a #andering

spirit #ith strange adventures and no end to them.D /he triviality of manner is the manner through #hich he could

convey the profoundest truths. >hile reading >ords#orth8s poems, it is impossible not to be struck by t#o things

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes '@




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&'(% !tr#ct#ralism and Post" str#ct#ralism"some practical differences )

!tr#ct#ralism Post" str#ct#ralism- %arallels5choes 3ontradictionsparado!es; alances !hifts*Breaks in:

one +iewpoint

imePersonattit#de

< 7eflections7epetitions 3onflicts= Symmetry Absences,missions/ 3ontrasts >inguistic 2uirks? %atterns Aporia@ 5ffect: To show te!tual unity and 3oherence 5ffect:To show te!tual disunity

19 !tr#ct#ralism is a way of thinking about the world which is predominantly concerned with the perceptions and description of structures. At its simpleststructuralism claims that the nature of every element in any given situation hasno significance by itself and in fact is determined by all the other elementsinvolved in that situation. The full significance of any entity cannot beperceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms apart. Structuralists believe that all human activity is constructed. $t is notnatural or "essential". 3onse2uently it is the systems of organi6ation that areimportant.

%9 Post"str#ct#ralism may be understood as a critical response to the basicassumptions of structuralism. Structuralism studies the underlying structureinherent in cultural products (such as tests) and utili6es analytical conceptsfrom linguistics psychology anthropology and other fields to understand andinterpret those structures. Although the structuralist movement fosteredcritical in2uiry into these structures it emphasi6ed logical and scientificresults. 1any structrualists sought to integrate their work pree!isting bodiesof knowledge. This was observed in the work of &erdinand e Saussure inlinguistics 3laude >eviStrauss in anthropology and many early ;0thcentury psychologists.

The general assumptions of poststructuralism derive fromthe criti2ue of structuralist premises. Specifically poststructuralism holdsthat the study of underlying structures is itself culturally conditioned andtherefore sub#ect to myriad biases and misinterpretations. To understand anob#ect (e.g. open of the many meanings of a te!t) it is necessary to study boththe ob#ect itself and the systems of knowledge which were coordinated toproduce the ob#ect. $n this way post structuralism positions itself as a study of how knowledge is produced.





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;CO. 8ow 7liot Refutes #ordsworthGs 6oncept of Cemotionrecollected in TranHuilityD

Eliot e+#resses his anti romantic 2ie/ of creati2e process in ;%raditionand the <ndividual %alent.> ?e disa##ro2es of the romantic 2ie/ of

#oetry as a sentimental e+#ression of sub3ecti2e feelin0s! Accordin0ly he

re3ects the emoti2e statement of ;ords/orth-Femotion recollected in

tranquility!G ;ords/orths formula in2ol2es three com#onents for #oetic

com#osition- emotion recollection and tranquility!

(e0ardin0 the )rst com#onent Eliot #uts for/ard his o/n theory of

emotion and feelin0s! ?e distin0uishes bet/een emotion and feelin0! ?e

says hat emotion arises out of #ersonal incident or situation of a #oets

life! It is closely associated /ith a #oets #ri2ate life!

.eelin0s on the contrary are only remotely or thinly associated /ith

#ersonal situation! .eelin0s can be aroused by an ima0e a /ord or a

#hrase! .or e+am#le the "de of Veats contains a cluster of feelin0s /hich

ha2e nothin0 #articular to do /ith the Ni0htin0ale but /hich the

Ni0htin0ale #artly #erha#s because of its e2ocati2e name and #artly

because of its re#utation ser2ed to bri0 to0ether!

The progress of an artist is a continual self0sacrifice, a continual extinction of

personality.... It is in this depersonali-ation that art may be said to approach thecondition of science....

Poetr% is not a turning loose of emotion& ut an escape from emotion- it is not t$ee"pression of personalit%& ut an escape from personalit% But& of course& onl%t$ose w$o $ave personalit% and emotions 4now w$at it means to want to escape

from t$ese t$ings

$he emotion of art is impersonal. And the poet cannot reach this impersonality"ithout surrendering himself "holly to the "or% to be done. And he is not li%ely to

%no" "hat is to be done unless he lives in "hat is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless he is conscious, not of "hat is dead, but of "hat

is already living.M

"n the contrary Colerid0es *Qe3ection is com#osed /ith the direct use of

emotion rooted in #ersonal incident! =he emotion of 0loomy des#air

con2eyed in Colerid0es #oem is a /or,in0 u# of the #oets similar emotion

e2ident in a #hase of his #ersonal life) Eliot asserts that a &oem can )e

com&ose$ either #ith emotion or #ith feelin*s! 8t is not al#ays

necessary that &oetry must ori*inate from emotion! 8n this #ay Eliot re=ects the su)=ecti-e emotionalism of >or$s#orth’s theory!





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8e further states that it is not for the emotions generated by

particular events of a poetEs life that a poet earns distinction.

Rather personal emotions are distilled, processed and transmuted

into what :liot calls structural or art emotion, for which a poet

deserves consideration. And emotion achie2es some de0ree of

im#ersonality! =hus Eliot de#ersonaliHes the romantic ma0ni)cation of

#ersonal emotion in #oetry! oetry is not a medium to unleash raw

emotion in an artless, uncontrolled and undisciplined way. 8ence

:liot maintains that poetry is not a turning loose of emotion.

Rather it is a controlled, selective, pattered e3pression of

emotion. <t demands some 4ind of some 4ind of mas4ing and

distancing of personal emotion$ a 4ind of artistic detachment, a

sort of decorum, some sort of veiling. %his is what :liot means by;an escape from emotion.>

Eliot does not acce#t that #oetry has al/ays somethin0 to do /ith

FrecollectionG! In other /ords recollection is not an indis#ensable material

for #oetry! Earlier Eliot obser2es that Fthe more #erfect the artist the more

com#letely se#arate in him /ill be the man /ho su>ers and the mind

/hich creates!G =his statement im#lies that #oetry is not com#letely

candid 5fran,9 e+#ression of the total #ersonality of a #oet! (ather it is ane+#ression of a si0ni)cant as#ect of life! And in creati2e #rocess there is a

0reat deal /hich is conscious and deliberate! =hus Eliot attaches

im#ortance to intellect and rational faculty in addition to emotion and

feelin0s!

In one of his inuential essays =he <eta#hysical Poets – Eliot &raises the

meta&hysical &oets for their uni%e$ sensi)ility. #hich results from

a fusion of emotion an$ intellect! ?ere too he recommends a uni)edsensibility- a synthesis of emotion and intellect!

=hen he refuses ;ords/orths requirement of tranquility in creati2e

acti2ity! ?e im#lies that the moment of com#osition is a hei0htened

moment of #sychic acti2ity and intros#ection! It is a moment of e+citement

and concerted e>ect /hen the total mind strains to attain the desired

hei0ht! It is a stimulated state of mind /hen an intense #ur#osi2e intellect

brin0s feelin0s or emotions into ne/ order! It can not be a rela+ed serenetension-free state! ;ords/orths reference to FtranquilityG im#lies a ,ind of





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#assi2e e>ortlessness! As Eliot says : it is not F a #assi2e attendin0 u#on

the e2entG!

It is a moment or act of concentration- /hen al mental and emotionalfaculties are intently occu#ied in #erformin0 a creati2e fat! =hus Eliot

refutes ;ords/orths formula of creati2e #rocess! I this /ay he manifesto

his anti-romantic modern classical stand#oint!!

!I. Archetype as >ricks in the <iterary TeJt (9rye)%

Archety&e (e%nition &n literature, an archetype is a typical

character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such

uniersal patterns of human nature3

An archetype, also kno#n as universal symbol, may be a character,

a theme, a symbol or even a setting. 6any literary critics are of the

opinion that archetypes, #hich have a common and recurring

representation in a particular human culture or entire human race, shape

the structure and function of a literary #ork.

5arl Jung, S#iss psychologist, argued that the root of an archetype is in

the Ccollective unconsciousD of mankind. /he phrase Ccollective

unconsciousD refers to experiences shared by a race or culture. /his

includes love, religion, death, birth, life, struggle, survival etc. /hese

experiences exist in the subconscious of every individual and are

recreated in literary #orks or in other forms of art.

Archetypal literary criticism is a type of critical theory that interprets a

text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes 4from the

5ree arch6, 7beginning,7 and typos, 7imprint78 in

the narrative, symbols, images, and character types in literary #ork. As a


http://literarydevices.net/theme/

http://literarydevices.net/setting/

http://literarydevices.net/root/

http://literarydevices.net/love/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbols

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image

http://literarydevices.net/theme/

http://literarydevices.net/setting/

http://literarydevices.net/root/

http://literarydevices.net/love/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbols

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image




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form of literary criticism, it dates back to &G* #hen 6aud

Fodkin published 'rchetypal #atterns in #oetry .

Archetypal literary criticism8s origins are rooted in t#o other academic

disciplines, social anthropology and psychoanalysis each contributed to

literary criticism in separate #ays, #ith the latter being a sub2branch of

critical theory. Archetypal criticism #as at its most popular in the &G*Hs

and &G+Hs, largely due to the #ork of 5anadian literary critic orthrop

!rye. /hough archetypal literary criticism is no longer #idely practiced,

nor have there been any ma?or developments in the field, it still has a

place in the tradition of literary studies

Origins

Fra9er

The anthropological origins of archetypal criticism can pre1date its

analytical psychology origins by o-er thirty years3 The 5olden

Bough 4:;<=>:<:?8, written by the cottish anthropologist ir

@ames 5eorge Fra9er , was the first influential te&t dealing with

cultural mythologies3 Fra9er was part of a group of comparati-e

anthropologists woring out of (ambridge 2ni-ersity who wored

e&tensi-ely on the topic3 The 5olden Bough was widely accepted as

the seminal te&t on myth that spawned numerous studies on the

same subject3 %-entually, the momentum of Fra9erAs wor carried

o-er into literary studies.

4n The 5olden Bough 9raKer identifies with shared practices and

mythological eliefs etween primitie religions and modern

religions. Fra9er argues that the death1rebirth myth is present in

almost all cultural mythologies, and is acted out in terms of


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Bodkin


https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Archetypal_Patterns_in_Poetry&action=edit&redlink=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_anthropology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Frye


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_James_George_Frazer


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_University



https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Archetypal_Patterns_in_Poetry&action=edit&redlink=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_anthropology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis







https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_University




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growing seasons and -egetation3 The myth is symboli9ed by the

death 4i3e3 final har-est8 and rebirth 4i3e3 spring8 of the god of

-egetation3

As an example, !ra;er cites the 9reek myth of Kersephone, #ho #as

taken to the nder#orld by 4ades. 4er mother 1emeter , the goddess of

the harvest, #as so sad that she struck the #orld #ith fall and #inter.

>hile in the under#orld Kersephone ate of the & pomegranate seeds

given to her by 4ades. Fecause of #hat she ate, she #as forced to

spend half the year, from then on, in theunder#orld, representative of

autumn and #inter, or the death in the death2rebirth myth. /he other half

of the year Kersephone #as permitted to be in the mortal realm #ith

1emeter, #hich represents spring and summer, or the rebirth in the

death2rebirth myth.

$ung

>hile !ra;er8s #ork deals #ith mythology and archetypes in material

terms, the #ork of 5arl 9ustav Jung, the S#iss2born founder of analytical

psychology, is, in contrast, immaterial in its focus. Jung8s #ork theori;es

about myths and archetypes in relation to the unconscious, an

inaccessible part of the mind. !rom a Jungian perspective, myths are the

Cculturally elaborated representations of the contents of the deepestrecess of the human psyche: the #orld of the archetypesD .

Jungian analytical psychology distinguishes bet#een the personal

and collective unconscious, the latter being particularly relevant to

archetypal criticism. /he collective unconscious, or the ob?ective

psyche as it is less fre0uently kno#n, is a number of innate thoughts,

feelings, instincts, and memories that reside in the unconsciousness of all people. Jung8s definition of the term is inconsistent in his many


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persephone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gustav_Jung

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objective_psyche



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gustav_Jung








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#ritings. At one time he calls the collective unconscious the Ca priori,

inborn forms of intuition,D #hile in another instance it is a series of

Cexperiences that come upon us like fateD. egardless of the many

nuances bet#een Jung8s definitions, the collective unconsciousness is a

shared part of the unconscious.

/o Jung, an archetype in the collective unconscious, as 0uoted from

3eitch et al., is Cirrepresentable, but has effects #hich make

visuali;ations of it possible, namely, the archetypal images and ideasD ,

due to the fact they are at an inaccessible part of the mind. /he

archetypes to #hich Jung refers are represented through primordial

images, a term he coined. Krimordial images originate from the initial

stages of humanity and have been part of the collective unconscious

ever since. %t is through primordial images that universal archetypes are

experienced, and more importantly, that the unconscious is revealed.

>ith the same death2rebirth myth that !ra;er sees as being

representative of the gro#ing seasons and agriculture as a point of

comparison, a Jungian analysis envisions the death2rebirth archetype as

a Csymbolic expression of a process taking place not in the #orld but in

the mind. /hat process is the return of the ego to the unconscious<a

kind of temporary death of the ego<and its re2emergence, or rebirth,

from the unconsciousD .

Fy itself, Jung8s theory of the collective unconscious accounts for a

considerable share of #ritings in archetypal literary criticism it also pre2

dates the height of archetypal literary criticism by over a decade. /he

Jungian archetypal approach treats literary texts as an avenue in #hich

primordial images are represented. %t #ould not be until the &G+Hs #hen

the other branch of archetypal literary criticism developed.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego,_super-ego,_and_id

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego,_super-ego,_and_id




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9rye

Fodkin8s !rchetypal Patterns in Poetry, the first #ork on the sub?ect of

archetypal literary criticism, applies Jung8s theories about the collective

unconscious, archetypes, and primordial images to literature. %t #as not

until the #ork of the 5anadian literary critic 5orthrop 9rye that

archetypal criticism #as theori;ed in purely literary terms. /he ma?or

#ork of !rye8s to deal #ith archetypes is !natomy of (riticism but his

essay C/he Archetypes of 3iteratureD is a precursor to the book. !rye8s

thesis in CThe Archetypes of <iteratureD remains largely unchanged

in !natomy of (riticism. !rye8s #ork helped displace e# 5riticism as

the ma?or mode of analy;ing literary texts, before giving #ay

to structuralism and semiotics.

!rye8s #ork breaks from both !ra;er and Jung in such a #ay that it is

distinct from its anthropological and psychoanalytical precursors. !or

!rye, the death2rebirth myth that !ra;er sees manifest in agriculture and

the harvest is not ritualistic since it is involuntary, and therefore, must be

done. As for Jung, !rye #as uninterested about the collective

unconscious on the grounds of feeling it #as unnecessary: since the

unconscious is unkno#able it cannot be studied. 4o# archetypes came

to be #as also of no concern to !rye rather, the function and effect of

archetypes is his interest.

For Frye, literary archetypes “play an essential role in refashioning

the material uni-erse into an alternati-e -erbal uni-erse that is

humanly intelligible and -iable, because it is adapted to essential

human needs and concerns+ 3

/here are t#o basic categories in !rye8s frame#ork, comedic and tragic.

$ach category is further subdivided into t#o

categories: comedy and romance for the comedic tragedy and satire (or



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_Criticism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Criticism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_(heroic_literature)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_Criticism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Criticism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_(heroic_literature)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire




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ironic) for the tragic. /hough he is dismissive of !ra;er, !rye uses the

seasons in his archetypal schema. $ach season is aligned #ith a literary

genre: comedy #ith spring, romance #ith summer, tragedy #ith autumn,

and satire #ith #inter.

5omedy is aligned #ith spring because the genre of comedy is

characteri;ed by the birth of the hero, revival and resurrection. Also,

spring symboli;es the defeat of #inter and darkness. omance and

summer are paired together because summer is the culmination of life in

the seasonal calendar, and the romance genre culminates #ith some sort

of triumph, usually a marriage. Autumn is the dying stage of the seasonal

calendar, #hich parallels the tragedy genre because it is, above all,

kno#n for the CfallD or demise of the protagonist. Satire

is metonymi;ed #ith #inter on the grounds that satire is a CdarkD genre

satire is a disillusioned and mocking form of the three other genres. %t is

noted for its darkness, dissolution, the return of chaos, and the defeat of

the heroic figure.

Summer I omance. /he birth of the hero. Autumn I /ragedy.

6ovement to#ards the death or defeat of the hero. >inter I %ronyLSatire.

/he hero is absent. Spring I 5omedy. /he rebirth of the hero.

/he context of a genre determines ho# a symbol or image is to be

interpreted. !rye outlines five different spheres in his schema: human,

animal, vegetation, mineral, and #ater. /he comedic human #orld is

representative of #ish2fulfillment and being community centred. %n

contrast, the tragic human #orld is of isolation, tyranny, and the fallen

hero. Animals in the comedic genres are docile and pastoral (e.g. sheep),

#hile animals are predatory and hunters in the tragic (e.g. #olves). !or

the realm of vegetation, the comedic is, again, pastoral but also

represented by gardens, parks, roses and lotuses. As for the tragic,


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy




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vegetation is of a #ild forest, or as being barren. 5ities, a temple, or

precious stones represent the comedic mineral realm. /he tragic mineral

realm is noted for being adesert, ruins, or Cof sinister geometrical imagesD

. 3astly, the #ater realm is represented by rivers in the comedic. >ith the

tragic, the seas, and especially floods, signify the #ater sphere.

!rye admits that his schema in CThe !rchetypes of *iteratureD is

simplistic, but makes room for exceptions by noting that there are neutralarchetypes. /he example he cites are islands such as 5irce8s

or Krospero8s #hich cannot be categori;ed under the tragic or comedic.

*A . Said view on DiIerence between occident and orient Signicance of orient for occident

Qccidental means Western &emisphere AmericasB, and Qriental means 3astern &emisphere

AsiaB.

Qccidental are native people from the "estern hemisphere 3urope, Corth America, )outh

AmericaB.

Qriental are native people from the eastern hemisphere the countries of AsiaB, although

MQrientalM is no" largely consider an offensive "ord and the preferred "ord is MAsian.M .

Qriental Asia* 2ostly people "ith slanted eyes Qccidental Asia* )outh"est people of Asia .Cot 3astern and Western &emispheresB

the difference bet"een Qriental and Qccidental (hilosophy is that Qriental refers to 3astern(hilosophy and Qccidental refers to Western (hilosophy


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruins

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floods

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruins

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floods

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circe





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*J. ost$2odernism as ; 5ultural Dominant> of our times

ostLModernism is a wideLranging set of deelopments in critical theory,philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture which are emerging fromand reacting to postmodernism. Another similar recent term is metaLmodernism. truth claims of science are inherently theory-laden and self-referential! Post7$odernism mar%s an era of ob@ectivity in the realms

of science

Postmodernism is a conce#t /hich a##ears in a /ide 2ariety of

disci#lines or areas of study includin0 art music )lm literature

architecture and technolo0y and no/adays has burst into #o#ular

usa0e as a term for e2erythin0 from roc, music to the /hole cultural

style and mood of recent decades!

,lac2)urn ?@B $e%ne$ &ostmo$ernism as a reaction a*ainst a

na-e con%$ence in o)=ecti-e or scienti%c truth!

ostLModernism re3ects the idea of #ro0ress inuto#ian assum#tions about e2olution social im#ro2ement and e>orts ineducation to #roduce reform! It denies the idea of )+ed meanin0s or anycorres#ondence bet/een lan0ua0e and the /orld or any )+ed reality ortruth or fact to be the ob3ect of enquiry!

=he #ostmodernist a##roach considers ob3ecti2ity to be a 2eil that hides itsreal nature of #o/erO by stri##in0 ob3ecti2ity of its dis0uise some#ostmodernists see, liberation /hile others

1retreat to an aesthetic. ironic. $etache$. an$ &layful attitu$e toone<s o#n )eliefs an$ to the march of e-ents6!

2odernism and ostmodernism in a 6utshell

S6o.

2odernism ostmodernism





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-../.0.1.

+.A.J.K.-.--.-.-/.

o*ecti'erationalscienti+cgloalclaims

positi'ist "topiancentralthe est linear generali,ingtheoreticalastract "ni+cation

s"*ecti'eirrationalanti-scienti+clocal claimsconstr"cti'ist

pop"list fragmente%etter non-linear non-generali,ing

practicalconcrete%i'ersity

5)22)6 58&R&5%:R<S%<5S )7 )S%2)D:R6<S2

8espite the divergence among different usages of +postmodern, one can find some

commonalities centering on (ostmodernists. $hey*

! Postmodernists are constructivists, in their vie", there are no real foundations of

truth, for there is no truth, except "hat the group decides is truth. (ostmodernism is

preference and truth is a social construct to be eliminated. $ruth and persons are given

value only as the group values them.

C! (ostmodernists are against Absolutism, they val!e relativism. Tno"ledge is not stable

and eternal as the history of science has sho"n us, it refers to probabilities rather than

certainties, better rather than the best.

M! Postmodernists reect theories because theories are abundant, and no theory is

considered more correct than any other. $hey feel theory conceals, distorts, obfuscates,

it is alienated, disparate, dissonant# it means to exclude order, controls rival po"ers. $o

them inquiry must be approached pragmatically.

N! 9uestion the notion of e&pertise. $he idea that some people expertsB %no" more than

others non:expertsB are not espoused. $hey believe that interaction between the

%nower and non7%nower is often best seen as a dialog in which there is m!t!al

infl!ence than simple transmission of %nowledge from one to the other . In fact, both

are involved in an interactive process of %no"ledge creation.

#ialog replaces monolog.





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O! Postmodernists reect global decisions. )ince reality is culture dependent, changing

over time, as cultures do, and varies from community to community, %no"ledge is not

universal .We are cautioned to be careful "ith generali-ations, because they can be

deluding.

#$erefore& Postmodernists are intolerant of trut$ and values unless t$e%

are considered local Diversit% is celerated

<! Postmodernists attac% notions of reason and means:end thin%ing .$he line

81 feelG therefore, 1 am and what 1 feel is good9 replaces 81 thin%G therefore, 1 am.9

)bectivism is replaced with subectivism and this is the society s whims which

rule scientific disciplines not physical laws.

J! use analytic strategy "hich is central to politics of postmodernism

")* 6)#E41I%6 EQ)8QE% =

It seems "ith the decadence of the 2atholic 2hurch and the end of the 7ristotelian

logic and "ith the dominance of the -aconian inductionism and the emergence of the

1ewtonian physics, the first foundations of modernism "ere laid.

=efore the 6enaissance, 3urope "as a theocratic society, in "hich Kod

"as the center of the universe and the supernatural phenomena ruled the natural

phenomena and the 74I%T)TE8I71 #E#R2TI)1I%6 "as common, but "hen

=acon put more emphasis on the role of observation, and "hen Ce"ton discovered some

la"s of the nature, man got proud of himself and found himself the center of the universe.

=elieving he could find the ultimate truth, he left no room for Kod or for the supernaturaland reason. 4ationalism and scientific method took over as the dominant

interpretations of life.

As in philosophy, the modern period "as started by #E%274TE% "ho believed

in exact and objective %no"ledge. &e "as a rationalist "ho believed in reason, thin%ing

that reason can grasp truths, independent of time and place.

$he picture born in the 3nlightenment gave rise to a civili-ation "hich

"as founded on scientific %no"ledge of the "orld and rational %no"ledge of value, "hich





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placed the highest premium on individual human life and freedom, believing that such

freedom and rationality "ould lead to social progress through virtuous, self:controlled

"or%, and create a better material, political, and intellectual life for all.

)rigin of Postmodernism in +rance

(ostmodernism philosophy originated primarily in 'rance during the /L1s and /;1s

and "as greatly influenced by phenomenology, existentialism, psychoanalysis,

2arxism, and structuralism.

$hese intellectual movements portrayed the human subject as alienated

in contemporary society, estranged from his or her authentic modes of experience and

being, "hether the source of that estrangement "as capitalism for 2arxismB, the

scientific naturalism for phenomenologyB, excessive repressive social mores for

'reudB, and bureaucratically organi-ed social life and mass culture for existentialismB.

In fact, all rejected the belief that the study of humanity could be modeled on

objectivityB or reduced to the physical science reductionismB# hence they avoided

behaviorism and naturalism. Hnli%e hard sciences, they focus not merely on facts but

on the meaning of facts for human subjects.

Another important factor in the development of postmodernism "as the situations after

the )econd World War "hich led to the decline of grand theories including Ca-ism,

'ascism, and finally 2arxism. 8yotard (ALNB argued that modern philosophies

legitimi-ed truth:claims not on logical or empirical ground, but rather on the grounds

of accepted stories or +metanarrative about %no"ledge of the "orld:: "hat

Wittgenstein termed as +language games. &e further argued that in our postmodern

condition, these meta0narratives no longer work to legitimi?e truth0 claims. In a

"ay, he stressed the fragmentary and plural characteristics of reality, believing that

there is no universal truth and no grand theory is credible

Another strain of postmodernism refers to the radical changes of the society*

the end of the last vestiges of European colonialism after the %econd *orld *ar , the

development of mass communications and a media culture and the shrin%ing of the globe by





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internal mar%eting, telecommunications, and intercontinental missiles "hich led to a

significant delegitimi?ation of authority and to a more egalitarian society

aB "abermass (AJO! “crisis of legitimation is the recognition that every author

exercises authority that promotes an agenda, denies alternative vie"s, and fails to

guarantee its o"n truth.

bB Edward %aid (AJL! found that coloni-ed people "ere dehumani-ed, stereotyped, and

treated not as communities of individuals but as an indistinguishable mass about

"hom one amasses %no"ledge.

cB #errida (AJ<! denounced the +6ercantili?ation )f Hnowledge and the contrived

invisibility of the author, a presence behind the text exerting authority and influence

but protected from recognition and critique unless deconstructed. 'or postmodernists,

&abermas!s /;<B +crisis of legitimation is the recognition that every author

exercises authority that promotes an agenda, denies alternative vie"s, and fails to

guarantee its o"n truth.

dB +oucault (AJM! examined ho" po"er is legitimi-ed through complex social

structures and objected to discourses in "hich +the privileges of one subject:: to tell

stories or decide "hat the topic is:: materially diminish the rights of other subjects. .

In his opinion, discourse is the medium through "hich po"er is expressed and people

and practices are governed.

Qutside philosophical and scientific inquiry after the )econd World War ne"

tendencies in art, literature, music and architecture emerged "hich critiqued

the bourgeois capitalist social order that carried the economic load of

modernity. $o name a fe" developments* dissonant and atonal music,

impressionism, surrealism, and expressionism in painting, literary realism,

and the stream of consciousness novel emerged "hich seemed to open the

imagination to a subjective "orld of experience "hich "as ignored by the

modern society and technology.

Were all 2odernists either s%eptical or reactionary in matters of 7hristian belief@

&o" can "e express ideas of the sacred distinct from religious commitment@





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6:T")P)EI7 6:T")P)EI2 6ET")#

*: U

2ythopoeia is a narrative genre in modern literat!re and film where a fictional

mythology is created by the writer of prose or other fiction. This meaning of the word

mythopoeia follows its !se by H. I. I. Tol%ien in the A+s. The a!thors in this genre integrate

traditional mythological themes and archetypes into fiction.

7lan #undes argued that

=an% novel cannot meet t$e cultural criteria of m%t$ + wor4 of art& or artifice& cannot e

said to e t$e narrative of a culture>s sacred tradition?it is@ at most& artificial m%t$=

Wor%s of mythopoeia are often categori-ed as fantasy or science fiction but fill a niche for

mythology in the modern "orld, &e did, ho"ever, use )tar Wars as an example of the creation

of such fantasy "orlds by "hich civili-ation "ill one day describe itself.Ncitation neededO

Without relevant mythology, 7ampbell claimed, society cannot function "ell

6odernist 6ythopoeia$ $he $"ilight of the Kods argues that the experimental modernist

form of mythopoeia "as directed to"ards expressing a range of poetic perspectives that fall

bet"een material secularism and dogmatic religion. 2odernist mythopoeia is a literary means

of esche"ing the language of certainty "hile giving voice to the nature and function of

transcendence in a post:religious context. As a comparative study, )cott 'reer offers fresh

readings on a range of %ey trans:Atlantic modernist texts, "hilst considering their various

mythopoeic method or vision* Ciet-sches $hus )pa%e Zarauthustra, $.). 3liots $he Waste

5and, 'ran- Taf%as 2etamorphosis, &ilda 8oolittles $rilogy, 8.&. 5a"rences =irds, =easts

and 'lo"ersV, and Wallace )tevens &armonium.

$he t"ilight of modernist mythopoeia is the nuanced and complex "ay of a

godless aesthetic, for it accommodates various shades of secularity and religiosity and brings

an inconclusiveness to the mysteries of human existence to be embraced and poetici-ed. $he

boo% is a timely addition to the post:secular debate as "ell as to the return of religion in

modernist studies.





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Imagism is a type of poetry that describes images with simple language and great focus.

It came out of the 6odernist movement in poetry. In the early /11s, poets abandoned the

old "ays of "riting poems and created a new movement in poetry called 6odernism.

Imagism was a movement in earl% At$'centur% +nglo'+merican poetr% t$at favored

precision of imager% and clear& s$arp language. It has been described as the most influential

movement in 3nglish poetry since the activity of the (re:6aphaelites.N

O As a poetic style it gave 2odernism its start in the early 41th century,

N4O and is considered to be the first organi-ed 2odernist literary movement in the 3nglish

language.

NEO Imagism is sometimes vie"ed as >a succession of creative moments> rather than any

continuous or sustained period of development.

NFO 4enS Taupin remar%ed that >It is more accurate to consider Imagism not as a doctrine,

nor even as a poetic school, but as the association of a few poets who were for a certain

time in agreement on a small number of important principles>.

N<O $he Imagists reected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much 4omantic and

Qictorian poetry, in contrast to their contemporaries, the Beorgian poets , who were

generally content to work within that tradition. In contrast, Imagism called for a return to

"hat "ere seen as more 7lassical values, such as directness of presentation and economy of

language, as "ell as a "illingness to experiment "ith non:traditional verse forms. Imagists

use free verse.

Imagist publications appearing bet"een /F and /; featured "or%s by many of the most

prominent modernist figures, both in poetry and in other fields. $he Imagist group "as

centered in 5ondon, "ith members from Kreat =ritain, Ireland and the Hnited )tates.

)ome"hat unusually for the time, a number of "omen "riters "ere major Imagist figures.

A characteristic feature of Imagism is its attempt to isolate a single image to reveal its essence.

$his feature mirrors contemporary developments in avant:garde art, especially 7ubism.Although Imagism isolates objects through the use of "hat 3-ra (ound called Mluminous





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detailsM, (ounds Ideogrammic 2ethod of juxtaposing concrete instances to express an

abstraction is similar to 7ubisms manner of synthesi-ing multiple perspectives into a single

image.

Pre0Imagism

Well:%no"n poets of the 3d"ardian era of the 0/1s, such as Alfred Austin, )tephen (hillips,

and William Watson, had been "or%ing very much in the shado" of $ennyson, producing

"ea% imitations of the poetry of the Jictorian era. $hey continued to "or% in this vein into the

early years of the 41th century.N;O As the ne" century opened, Austin "as still the serving

=ritish (oet 5aureate, a post "hich he held up to /E. In the centurys first decade, poetry

still had a large audience# volumes of verse published in that time included $homas &ardys

$he 8ynasts, 7hristina 6ossettis posthumous (oetical Wor%s, 3rnest 8o"sons (oems,

Keorge 2erediths 5ast (oems, 6obert )ervices =allads of a 7heecha%o and 9ohn 2asefields

=allads and (oems. 'uture Cobel (ri-e "inner William =utler eats "as devoting much of

his energy to the Abbey $heatre and "riting for the stage, producing relatively little lyric

poetry during this period. In /1;, the Cobel (ri-e for 5iterature "as a"arded to 6udyard

Tipling.

$he origins of Imagism are to be found in t"o poems, Autumn and A 7ity )unset by $. 3.

&ulme. $hese "ere published in 9anuary /1/ by the (oets 7lub in 5ondon in a boo%let





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called 'or 7hristmas 287777JIII. &ulme "as a student of mathematics and philosophy# he

had been involved in the setting up of the club in /10 and "as its first secretary. Around the

end of /10, he presented his paper A 5ecture on 2odern (oetry at one of the clubs meetings

*hat is meant by #rama of Ideas =

=est Ans"er* 2odern drama under great influence of Ibsen* Kreat Cor"egian dramatist, give

rise to the 7omedy of Ideas.

Dramas ceased to deal wit$ t$emes remote in time and place& real drama must deal wit$

emotions 8rama of ideas gave up melodramatic romanticism and pseudo:classical

remoteness, start treating the actual life, made drama a drama of ideas.

Important dramatist* Keorge =ernard )ha".

#rama of Ideas$

B 6evolutionary against past literary models, social conventions and morality.4B 8ealt "ith the problem of sex, youth.

EB Against romance, capitalism, parental authority.

FB Cumber of theories, slo" actions and frequently interrupted.

<B )tudy of soul.

LB Inner conflict substituted the outer conflict.

2haracters$ ;uestioning, restless, dissatisfied, struggling against preudice.

#rama of Ideas or the drama of social criticism! in the real sense is a modern development.





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A number of contemporary problems and evils are subjected to

discussion and searching examinations and criticism in these plays. $hus in it, the structure

and characteri-ation are of subordinate importance# its the ‘discussion! that counts.

Ibsen and then %haw, Balsworthy and Branville -arker were the chief e&ponents of this

realistic drama of ideas.

$o )ha", drama was pre'eminentl% a medium for articulating $is own ideas and

p$ilosop$% <e enunciated t$e p$ilosop$% of life force w$ic$ $e soug$t to disseminate

t$roug$ $is dramas #$us S$avian pla%s are t$e ve$icles for t$e transportation of ideas&

ho"ever, propagandi-ing they may be. )ha" "anted to cast his ideas through discussions.

Qut of the discussions in the play

7rms and The 6an 'haw brea%s the idols of love and war .

$he iconoclast )ha" pulls do"n all false gods "hich men live, love admire and adore. =y a

clever juxtaposition of characters and dialogues,

S$aw s$atters t$e romantic illusions aout war and war $eroes S$aw,s message is t$at war is no

longer a t$ing of anners and glor%& as t$e nineteent$ centur% dramatist saw it& ut a dull and

sordid affair of rutal strengt$ and callous planning out .

$he dialogues of =luntschli, 6iana and )ergius go to preach this message

"ith great success. &ere to quote )ergius "ho says,

+ War is a hollo" sham li%e love.

Qne thing ho"ever be remembered that in Arms and $he 2an, 2r. )ha" does not, as some

imagine attac% "ar. &e is not $olstoy an in the least. What he does is to denounce the

sentimental illusion that gathers around "ar. +'ight if you "ill, says he ‘but for goodness!

sa%e don!t stri%e picturesque attitudes in the limelight about it. Jie" it as one of the

desperately irrational things of life that may, ho"ever, in certain circumstances be a brutal

necessity.





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-luntschli is the very mouth piece of the play that exposes the scourge

of "ar. $here is a lot of learning in the disillusionment of 6iana and )ergius. In the play he

has ta%en a realistic vie" not only of "ar and heroism but of love and marriage. &e has ta%en

a realistic vie" of life as a "hole. &e has blo"n a"ay the halo of romance that surrounds

human life as a "hole. &is message in this play is, therefore, the destruction not only of the

conventional conception of the heroic soldier but of the romantic vie" of marriage, nay, of life

as a "hole. &e pleads for judging everything concerning human life from a purely realistic

point of vie". $his is the message he conveys through the play, Arms and $he 2an.

%he Golden Hough

$he Kolden =ough* A )tudy in 7omparative 6eligion

(retitled #$e 6olden Boug$ + Stud% in Magic and :eligion in its second editionB

is a "ide:ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, "ritten by the )cottish

anthropologist

%ir 3ames Beorge +ra?er (LONAN!. It "as first published in t"o volumes in 0/1# in

three volumes in /11# the third edition, published /1LD<, comprised t"elve volumes.

#$e wor4 was aimed at a wide literate audience raised on tales as told in suc$ pulicationsas #$omas Bulfinc$>s #$e +ge of Fale& or Stories of 6ods and <eroes.

+ra?er offered a modernist approach to discussing religion, treating it

dispassionately as a cultural phenomenon rather than from a theological perspective .

$he influence of $he Kolden =ough on contemporary 3uropean literature and thought "as

substantial

The Bolden -ough attempts to define the shared elements of religious belief and

scientific thought, discussing fertility rites, human sacrifice, the dying god, the scapegoat

and many other symbols and practices whose influence has e&tended into twentieth0

century culture. Its thesis is that old religions "ere fertility cults that revolved around the

"orship and periodic sacrifice of a sacred %ing. 'ra-er proposed that man%ind progresses from

magic through religious belief to scientific thought.





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NFO $his thesis "as developed in relation to 9. 2. W. $urners painting of $he Kolden =ough, a

sacred grove "here a certain tree gre" day and night. It "as a transfigured landscape in a

dream:li%e vision of the "oodland la%e of Cemi, M8ianas 2irrorM, "here religious

ceremonies and the Mfulfillment of vo"sM of priests and %ings "ere held.

Virginia oolf& in an entirel% different conte"t& $as rilliantl% descried t$e self'deluding effect of

t$is activit% *omen $ave served all t$ese centuries as loo4ing glasses possessing t$e magic and

delicious power of reflecting t$e figure of man at twice its natural sie. .

Is it possible to historici?e literature = +rye advocacy for universal

grammar of archetypes =

FAl/ays historiciHeWG e+horts contem#orary literary critic .redric ameson! .e/

students of literature and culture these days /ould )nd this admonition anythin0

more than common sense! Indeed one mi0ht /ell /onder ho/ can literature not

be seen as e+istin0 in historyR ut this common sense has only been common fora short time historically s#ea,in0!

=he current /ays of FhistoriciHin0 literatureG of

understandin0 literature in relation to lar0er historical forces ha2e mostly

emer0ed since the 1Bs! =hey arose from a number of di>erent sources and

too, a number of di>erent forms! Ne/ forms of literary historicism fundamentally

resha#ed ho/ te+ts /ere inter#reted raised questions about ho/ literary 2alue

/as determined in di>erent eras e+#anded the de)nition of /hat ,inds of te+ts

counted as FliteratureG disco2ered no2el /ays to #lace literary /or,s in relation

to other ,inds of /ritten Fte+tsG a##lied literary critical methods to historical

documents #o#ular culture and e2en to /or,s of criticism themsel2es as,ed

ne/ questions about the Fcultural /or,G done by literary te+ts and re/rote the

FcanonG of /or,s deemed im#ortant enou0h to be read in literature classes! =he

sin0le most im#ortant factor in resurrectin0 the historical analysis of literary te+ts

/as no doubt a /a2e of social mo2ements in the 16s 1Ds and 1Bs that

resha#ed the entire culture

In the nineteenth century the historical study of literature had ta,en t/o main

forms$ a bio0ra#hical a##roach focused on the li2es of a set of 0reat authors

5mostly male mostly /hite9 and a more technical F#hilolo0icalG a##roach that





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sou0ht to understand the historical e2olution of /ords and literary forms! Literary

study /as #rimarily the /or, of 0entlemen 5and a fe/ ladies9 /ith little interest in

the social im#lications of literature! In the early t/entieth century t/o socially

conscious schools of criticism Pro0ressi2ism and <ar+ism challen0ed these older

styles! <ar+ist critics too, u# the question of historiciHation by dee#enin0 this

critique of ca#italismTs control of society and literature! <ar+ist criticism in the

1's too, a 2ariety of forms but all sou0ht to understand the creation and

inter#retation of literature as a social act fundamentally in2ol2ed in sha#in0 the

course of history!

=he most common counter to these o#enly #olitical /ays of historiciHin0 literature

/as 5and still is9 the claim that literature /as someho/ abo2e #olitics! =his 2a0ue

char0e /as de2elo#ed into a #o/erful ar0ument /ith the rise of a 0rou# of

scholars /ho came to be ,no/n as the FNe/ CriticsG : most notably ohn Cro/e

(ansom Allen =ate (obert Penn ;arren and Cleanth roo,s /ith the criticism of

=!S! Eliot much honored as an ins#iration! =hese scholars solidi)ed an anti-

historical a##roach that dominated literary studies throu0hout the middle

decades of the t/entieth century! =he literary FformalismG of the Ne/ Critics

emer0ed from t/o quite di>erent but mutually reinforcin0 forces! "n the one

hand there /as a desire to #rofessionaliHe literary study in academia by #uttin0

it on a more ob3ecti2e scienti)c footin0 reminiscent of the ne/ly emer0ent social

sciences! "n the other side there /as a consciously #olitical mo2e to su##ress

the radical im#lications of <ar+ist styles of literary history! Se2eral of the Ne/

Critics /ere associated /ith the FSouthern a0rariansG a 0rou# of authors critical

of modern ca#italism 2ia the rather di>erent route of nostal0ia for the #re-

industrial South!

=he idea of FtimelessG literature has been /ith us for some time often attached

to the notion of the Fclassics!G ut the idea of Fthe classicsG is itself an historical

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes D1




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conce#t one emer0in0 in the (enaissance /hen FclassicalG Jreece and (ome

/ere FrehistoriciHedG as models for aesthetic creation!

;hile the Ne/ Criticism /as immensely successful in institutionaliHin0 itself as

the sin0le #ro#er mode of doin0 literary analysis from the late 1's to the mid-

1Ds its dominance did not 0o unchallen0ed!Xoun0 critics emer0in0 in the li0ht

of the Ci2il (i0hts lac, Po/er Chicano Nati2e American /omenTs 0ay and

other mo2ements of the 1Ds and 1Bs be0an to ree+amine dee#ly the /ays in

/hich /hat #assed as the canon of literary te+ts and the styles of literary

analysis left out both their o/n historical e+#eriences and their o/n /ays of

e+#eriencin0 the social #o/er of the /ritten /ord!

2etahistory too4 the literary analysis of critic 6orthrop 7rye and

applied it brilliantly to history boo4s. ?hite demonstrated with

close formal analysis that historical writing was, after all, writing,

and as such subMect to some of the same laws of form found in

ction. ?hat ?hite called ;emplotment> was the process by

which the wealth of historical detail on a given subMect was turned

by the historian into a coherent ;story.> %a4ing the ;story> in ;hi$

story> seriously he argued that close analysis revealed that

certain literary laws of form applied as well to historical writing.

8e found, for e3ample, that historical te3ts could be categoriCed

into four main types of ;plot> N tragic, comic, romantic, or satiric.

?hite showed how all historical analysis tended to gather ;facts>

into stories utiliCing one or more of these ;plots,> and he argued

that the logic of this pattern was determined more by the

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes D%




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ideology of the historian than by the nature of the historical

materials. (?hites own analysis might best be considered a fth

4ind of plot, the ;ironic,> that does not escape its own ideological

implications and evasions." %his did not mean that history was

;Must ction,> but it did mean that historical truth was inevitably

processed through linguistic conventions shared by ction and

non$ction. )ne might have thought that historians would

welcome this eIort to show that they too wrote in language, and

that they would come closer to historical truth if they too4

account of the ways in which their narratives were shaped by

poetic rules similar to those found in literature. Hut few empiricist

historians embraced this analysis. <nstead its in'uence blended

with a theoretical invasion from 7rance that also used formalism

to blow apart formalism.

Northrop Frye Essay –

Anatomy of Criticism

Critical Essays

Frye has exerted tremendous influence in the field of literary criticism and

in the area of education in literature and the humanities. This influence

derives mainly from his Anatomy of Criticism, a work in which Frye made

large and controversial claims for literature and literary critics.

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes D'




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In Anatomy, Frye argued that judgments are not inherent in the critical

process. He further asserted that literary criticism can be "scientific" in its

methods and its results, without borrowing concepts from other fields of

study. Literary criticism, in Frye's view, can and should be autonomous in

the manner that physics, biology, and chemistry are autonomous

disciplines.

For Frye, literature is schematic because it is wholly structured by myth

and symbol. The critic becomes a kind of scientist, determining how

symbols and myth are ordered and function in a given work. The critic

need not, in Frye's view, make judgments of value about the work; a

critical study is structured by the fact that the components of literature,

like those of nature, are unchanging and predictable.

Frye believes that literature occupies a position of extreme importance

within any culture. Literature, as Frye sees it, is "the place where our

imaginations find the ideal that they try to pass on to belief and action,where they find the vision which is the source of both the dignity and the

joy of life." The literary critic serves society by studying and "translating"

the structures in which that vision is encoded.

In Northrop Frye's text "Don't You Think it's Time to Start Thinking" he

makes a link between language and thinking.

Frye believes that in order to come up with the good idea in

the first place, we need the ability to articulate it beforehand.

He uses a comical example that until you have words to

describe it, you can't articulate whether the pain in your

stomach is gas or pregnancy. If you don't have the





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language, you might resort to pointing at your stomach or

saying pain and gesturing in some way.

Frye's point is that to think intelligently, we need to have an

intelligent grasp of vocabulary and language structures. To

think intelligently, we need to know what words can do and

how they work.

He takes this a step further. He adds that if we simply learn

the basics of language but do not attempt to learn how andwhy words work in social situations, we merely learn to read

and write in order to become puppets:

. . . because society must have docile and obedient citizens.

We are taught to read so that we can obey the traffic signs

and to cipher so that we can make out our income tax, butdevelopment of verbal competency is very much left to the

individual.

Frye refers to Orwell's novel1984 in which society has been

brainwashed to speak as simply as possible. The less

articulate they are, the more easily the government can

wield power over them.

Frye adds that it has been deemed uncool, as an

adolescent, to speak articulately. This is obviously a

problem.





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Similar to today's media, Frye argues that society relies too

much on cliches and what we might call "stock responses"

and "sound bites." Note that in political debates and

discussions, candidates and pundits use repetitive phrases.

The problem is these phrases lack substance. They are

stock responses which means that many people use them

automatically, at any time, with no real thinking behind them.

"Let's make America great again." How many times have

you heard this phrase with no clarification? "Great" soundsgreat but there is no thinking behind it. Such phrases are

used to pacify the public into nodding thoughtlessly. Frye

says this is a problem at all levels of education. His solution

is to put more focus and effort in educating students to think

critically precisely by teaching them to speak and write

critically. For Frye, thinking intelligently requires a stronggrasp of how language works, what it can do, and how it is

used (for good and bad) in social situations, in the media,

and so on.

Literary Criticism [Section-E ] Selected Notes DD




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literary criticism section e notes

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