Before and After New Criticism: an Overview   Traditional literary criticism  Modern literary theory & criticism After New Criticism 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 contains 1. 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 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… TOP     II. Modern literary theory and criticism theory practical criticism (Since 19th Century; see above) a. early 20th-c approach: --textual scholarship  --biographical or historic approach  --impressionistic approach (appreciation of beauty)  --naturalist approach  --New Humanism ( moral-philosophic approach)—traced back to Plato New Criticism, Russian Formalism and Leavisites  NC: Eliot—the poem as the impersonal formulations of common feelings and emotions; objective correlatives  --affective fallacy, intentional fallacy, organic unity   RF: Art as device; defamiliarization Liberal Humanism From parts to an organic whole   　 TOP   III. After New Criticism from literature as an aesthetic object to literature as a social (historical) practice Lit. crit.-- no longer neutral, or "disinterested," it is conditioned, or programmed; depends on our past experience, our framework. functions of lit. theory -- It can make us become a self-conscious critic; know more about literature, look at it from different perspectives, understand and historicize our own perspective, as well as others' perspectives. Theory becomes an independent school of study. To articulate this framework and piece together the various elements of our practical criticism into a coherent, unified body of knowledge is to formulate our literary theory.    Five points of the theories after New Criticism:     Politics is pervasive,  任何事情都是政治的，  Language is constructive,  語言為建構， Truth is provisional, 真理是臨時建構， Meaning is contingent, 意義是因時?地制定的，  Human nature is a myth 人性的普遍性是虛構的。       TOP