| Description |
xiii, 302 pages ; 23 cm |
| Contents |
1. Literary Theory in Classical Times. Rhetorical Criticism. Plato. Aristotle. Horace. Longinus -- 2. Literary Theory in the Middle Ages. Allegorical Exegesis -- 3. The Rise and Fall of Neoclassicism. The Question of Language. The Idealising Strain. The Italian Aristotelians. Neoclassicism and the Purification of Language. French Neoclassical Theory. The British Version of Neoclassicism. British Theory in the Age of Sensibility. Vico, Diderot, Lessing -- 4. Romantic Literary Theory. Herder and the Spirit of the Time. The Influence of Kant. The Organic Principle. The Role of the Critic. Some British Themes. Sainte-Beuve, Emerson, Poe -- 5. Social Theories of the 19th Century. Belinsky and the Three Radicals. Matthew Arnold. The Beginnings of Sociological Criticism: Taine and Marx -- 6. Naturalism, Symbolism and Modernism. French Naturalists. French Symbolists. British Aestheticism and Henry James. Modernism and the Avant-Garde. Hulme and Pound. T. S. Eliot |
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7. New Developments in Theory. Nietzsche. Freud. Saussure. Marxism and Literary Theory -- 8. 20th-Century Russian Theory. Russian Formalism. Propp. Czech Structuralism. Bakhtin and his Circle -- 9. Anglo-American Criticism, 1900-60. Richards and Empson. Leavis and the Leavisites. The New Criticism: Southern Phase. Kenneth Burke. The New Criticism: Hegemonic Phase. Myth Criticism and Northrop Frye -- 10. Phenomenological Criticism in France and Germany. Poulet and the Geneva School. From Ingarden to Iser. From Gadamer to Jauss. De Beauvoir and Two Predecessors -- 11. French Structuralism. Paradigmatic Structural Relations. Structuralist Narratology. Structuralism as a Poetics. Barthes |
| Summary |
"Where does the current explosion in literary theory come from? What earlier theoretical movements does it grow out of, bounce off, react against?"--BOOK JACKET. "This introductory history homes in on the essential principles governing the major movements in literary theory, unfolding a comprehensive 'story' with all its jumps and swings and switches."--BOOK JACKET |
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"In this volume, the author looks behind particular critical judgements and interpretations in order to present a clear explanation of the core underlying positions. He explains the internal rationale of each position, together with its derivation and repercussions. At the same time, he shows how 'literary theory' has taken on very different roles in different periods. He relates these different roles to particular socio-political settings, institutional contexts and creative practices."--BOOK JACKET |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 264-292) and index |
| Subject |
Literature -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
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Literature -- Philosophy.
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Criticism.
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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| LC no. |
99022571 |
| ISBN |
0312224818 |
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0312224826 paperback |
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0333714229 Macmillan paperback |
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0333714210 Macmillan |
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