Period Study

Literary criticism – art or science?

• attempts at a scientific approach - linguistics as a starting point

• close reading• a systematic study of literature and its phenomena• University curricula: based on literary kinds

based on literary periodsbased on individual

authorsbased on literary theories

Literature in context

literary periods in a cultural context Raymond Williams: art and society seen together: 'culture' as a total expression

of a way of life Cultural Studies: contemporary, popularPeriod Study: various forms of art

within a historical period in a social, political context

How to recognize a period?

dominant features (Roman Jakobson, early 20th c): foregrounded elements

– in a period – in a work of art

borderline cases – all boundarydrawing is strategic

(See: Brian McHale, Postmodernist Fiction)

Dominant qualitiesDominant qualities colour most elements of

intellectual life in a given culture at a certain time - also influence art, music, architecture, landscape,

gardening, philosophy, politics• a few broad tendencies in common at a high level

of abstraction• with individual, temporal, local variations• subordinate currents as well as dominant ones• declining and emergent energies

e.g., New Historicism takes this line of study

How to examine a literary period: how it is framed by a set of significant

eventsThe Renaissance in England, for example:

• the first visit of Erasmus (1499), • Caxton's printing press at Westminster (1476), • the discovery of America (1492), • the court of the young Henry VIII

(on the throne: 1491-1547), • the Protestant Reformation, • Copernicus's new astronomy (1543), • the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

How to examine a literary period: priorities in its views

• features certain priorities in its views concerning the world and art

• e.g., in Classicism: balance, form, proportion, propriety (good taste, good manners correctness, otherwise known as decorum), dignity, simplicity, objectivity, rationality, restraint, responsibility (rather than self-expression), unity (rather than diversity)

How to examine a literary period:views of humans, favourite genres

• promotes a certain view of humankinde.g., in Romanticism: the celebration of

the individual• uses specific genres (rather than others)

e.g., in 19th c. Realism: the novel with its details, its particularisation of the lives of ordinary people

How to examine a literary period:favourite subjects, favourite forms

• favours certain subjects for arte.g., in Modernism: inner individual perception

(impressionistic presentation ,stream of consciousness technique,

such as in Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway)• shows characteristic formal elements (including the

example above)e.g., in Postmodernism: Narcissistic narrative:

intruding into one's own fiction to ponder upon its powers

Literary trend vs cultural period

A literary trend may not correspond exactly to a cultural period!

e.g., Postmodernism or the Post-Modern Period

history of literature: allusion ,intertextuality - interdependence of texts

through genre, conventions

vs traditional notions of influence: study of direct sources

How is literature read, or judged?

Yet another way of looking at literature: how it was read, by whom, how it was judged

• readership, horizon(s) of expectations (Hans Robert Jauss)

• How do you judge a piece of literature? Do you have to ? Should you? Can you avoid doing so? How do you select a work or period to be studied? Can evaluation change reading? Can evaluation prevent reading?

Literary period: horizontal or vertical study

• The history of literature• The study of High Modernism• 1928 in literature in England

in the historical context of the UK in the artistic or social or political

context of Continental Europe

in the life of Virginia Woolf

The Sick RoseWilliam Blake (1794)

O Rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling stormHas found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

A Red, Red RoseRobert Burns (1796)

0 my luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung In June;

0 my luve's like the melodieThat's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,So deep in luve am I;And I will luve thee still, my dear,Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun:

0 I will luve thee still, my dear,While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve, And fare thee weel awhile!

And I will come again, my luve,Though it were ten thousand mile.

One perfect roseDorothy Parker (1926)

A single flow'r he sent me, since we met.All tenderly his messenger he chose;

Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet -One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;'My fragile leaves', it said, 'his heart enclose'.

Love long has taken for his amuletOne perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yetOne perfect limousine, do you suppose?

Ah, no, it's always just my luck to getOne perfect rose.

Rose is a rose is a roseGertrude Stein, Sacred Emily, 1913

' Yes, I’m no fool; but I think that in that line the rose is red for the first time in English poetry for a hundred years." (Stein, Four in America)