Before and After New Criticism:
an Overview
 
新批評和英國文學體制化是同時發生的﹐而前者的理論與實踐有助於後者的建立。

1。傳統文學理論大體上可以分為古典時期﹐新古典時期和浪漫時期。浪漫時期的思想之後則演進為新批評主義的理論基礎。
2。隨著文學理論的演進﹐在19世紀文學由傳統人文藝術(Humanities﹚區隔出來。
3。而英文文學則是在二十世紀第一次大戰之後才在英國被體制化為英文系﹐在之前﹐學文學主要是學古典文學。

(The following  section contains1. notes taken by Kate Liu from "A Historical Survey of Literary Criticism,"Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice.   Bressler, Charles E.  Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1994: 11-30. 
2. the italicized parts: explanations offered by Kate Liu.)

I. Traditional literary criticism 
II. Modern literary theory & criticism
III. After New Criticism:


I. Traditional literary criticism

  1. Theoretical criticism--What is literature?   (It presupposes an ultimate truth, and universal values.)
  • Literature's nature and functions
    • Classical theory:
      Plato in The Republic: Poetry and art are telling lies and far removed from truth

      Aristotle (in response to Plato) --justifies poetry on two grounds: it imitates nature, and it has morally desirable effects on the human mind.
       defining the elements of literature; drama

      Neo-Classical theory:
      Renaissance: Sir Philip Sidney "poetic justice": "We see virtue exalted, and vice punished."
      Pope -- golden rules; restraint, good taste,
      Dryden: "wit": propriety of thoughts and words;  "proportion": the smooth and fitting adaptation of every part of a work of art toward the unified whole.  "Propriety": the quality that permits or encourages the integrity, the total harmony of a work of art.
      Samuel Johnson: Also insists on general nature and universal truth, he thinks that poet is "the interpreter of Nature"; challenge neoclassical dogma but respect "general nature"; defends Shakespeare
       

  • It's effects on the reader:
    • Aristotle -- catharsis; Plato: morality

      Horace, Sir Philip Sidney: to teach and delight

      Longinus -- the Sublime: when our intellect, emotions, and our will harmoniously respond to a given work of art; the idea of the Classic



 
  • Development of literature and lit. criticism since 19th c.

  • -- from the mirror to the lamp: from mimetic, rhetoric and moralistic theories to expressive theory (19-c Romanticism)
    -- focus on imagination

      Coleridge: primary imagination and secondary imagination
    -- reading as the subjective experience of sharing emotions

    -- institutionalization of literature

Matthew Arnold as a Victorian critic: "a disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world."
--a disciplined activity that attempts to study, analyze, interpret, and evaluate a work of art.
--the critic: no longer the interpreter of a lit. work, the critic now functions as an authority on values, culture, and taste.
After his death in 1888—lit. theory and criticism become more diversified…