LITERARY CRITICISM and THEORIES Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved with Publishers
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LiteraryCriticismandTheories DENG501 LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORIES Copyright © 2012 All rights reserved with publishers Produced & Printed by USI PUBLICATIONS 2/31, Nehru Enclave, Kalkaji Ext., New Delhi-110019 for Lovely Professional University Phagwara SYLLABUS Literary Criticism and Theories Sr. Content No. 1 Aristotle’s Poetics 2 Stanley Fish . 3 Jaques Derrida 4 Lionel Trilling 5 Jaques Lacan 6 Mikhail Bakhtin 7 Edward Said and Orientalism 8 Gynocriticism and Feminist Criticism 9 Elaine Showwalter Four models of Feminism 10 Umberto’s Eco’s Casablanca: Cult Movies and inter-textual Collage CONTENTS Unit 1: Aristotle: The Poetics—Introduction to the Author and the Text 1 Unit 2: Aristotle: The Poetics: Introduction, Tragedy 15 Unit 3: Aristotle: The Poetics-Catharsis and Hamartia 33 Unit 4: Aristotle: The Poetics: Ideal Tragic Hero, Comedy 45 Unit 5: Is There a Text in This Class—Introduction to Stanley Fish 52 Unit 6: Is There a Text In This Class—Stanley Fish: Analysis 59 Unit 7: Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences—Jacques Derrida 74 Unit 8: Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences’—Jacques Derrida: Detailed Study 91 Unit 9: Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences’—Jacques Derrida: Critical Appreciation 102 Unit 10: Freud and Literature—Lionel Trilling: An Introduction 113 Unit 11: Freud and Literature—Lionel Trilling: Detailed Study 121 Unit 12: Freud and Literature—Lionel Trilling: Critical Appreciation 128 Unit 13: The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious—Jacques Lacan: An Introduction 137 Unit 14: The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious— Jacques Lacan: Detailed Study 149 Unit 15: The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconcious— Jacques Lacan: Critical Appreciation 166 Unit 16: Mikhail Bakhtin and his ‘From the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse-Dialogics in Novels: Introduction 176 Unit 17: Mikhail Bakhtin and his “From the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse”—Dialogics in Novels: Detailed Study 185 Unit 18: Mikhail Bakhtin and his ‘From the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse (Textual Analysis with Chronotopes and Perennial Narativity) 198 Unit 19: Two Types of Orientalism—Orientalism as a Literary Theory 209 Unit 20: Edward Said's Crisis [In Orientalism]: Textual Analysis 225 Unit 21: Edward Said's Crisis [In Orientalism]: Detailed Study 240 Unit 22: Edward Said's Crisis [In Orientalism]: Inter-Textual Analysis (Alluding Fanon, Foucaut and Bhabha) 250 Unit 23: Gynocriticism and Feminist Criticism: An Introduction 259 Unit 24: Features of Feminist Criticism 269 Unit 25: Gynocriticism and Feminist Criticism: Analysis 276 Unit 26: Elaine Showalter: Four Models of Feminism in 'Ferminist Criticism in the Wilderness' 282 Unit 27: Elaine Showalter: Four Models of Feminism in “Feminist Criticism in Wilderness” —Biological and Linguistic Difference 288 Unit 28: Elaine Showalter: Four Models of Feminism in “Feminist Criticism in Wilderness” —Psychological and Cultural Difference 305 Unit 29: Umberto Eco’s ‘Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage’ (History and War-Background) 316 Unit 30: Umberto Eco's 'Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage’ (Textual Analysis) 327 Unit 31: Umberto Eco’s ‘Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage’ (Deconstructing and Disciplinarising Hollywood) 336 Unit 32: Umberto Eco’s ‘Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage’ (Intertextual Analysis) 346 Unit 1: Aristotle: The Poetics—Introduction to the Author and the Text Unit 1: Aristotle: The Poetics— Notes Introduction to the Author and the Text CONTENTS Objectives Introduction 1.1 Life and Works of Aristotle 1.2 Aristotle’s Poetics—An Introduction 1.3 “The Poetics”: Its Universal Significance 1.4 Plato’s Objection to Poetry 1.5 Aristotle’s Views on Poetry 1.6 Summary 1.7 Key-Words 1.8 Review Questions 1.9 Further Readings Objectives After reading this Unit students will be able to: • Know about Aristotle’s Works and His Life. • Understand Aristotle’s Views on Poetry. Introduction In this unit we shall try to know about Aristotle and his life and works and also understand about the relationship between Criticism and Creativity. We shall see how criticism is valued like creative writings. We shall know the role and place given to 'the critic' in the field of literary criticism. In order to appreciate Aristotle's criticism of poetry and the fine arts it is essential to have some knowledge of literary criticism in antiquity prior to him, of the current critical theories and methods, and of the general, social and political conditions that prevailed in Greece at that time. It is also essential to have an idea of the views of Aristotle on ethics and morality in general. The history of literary criticism has witnessed several critics who themselves had not been creative writers. Plato and Aristotle were such critics who gave guidelines of good literature without themselves being creative writers. Plato was the most distinguished disciple of Socrates. The 4th century BC to which he belonged was an age of inquiry and as such his chief interest was Philosophical investigations, which form the subject of his great works in form of Dialogues. He was not a professed critic of literature and his critical observations are not found in any single book. They lie scattered in seven of his dialogues, more particularly in The Ion, The Symposium, The Republic and the Laws. The first objection to his critical views came form his disciple, Aristotle. 1.1 Life and Works of Aristotle Aristotle was born of a well-to-do family in the Macedonian town of Stagira in 384 B.C. Hence the nickname Stagirite given to him by Pope. His father, Nicomachus, was a physician who died when Aristotle was young. In 367, when Aristotle was seventeen, his uncle, Proxenus, sent him to Athens to study at Plato's Academy. There he remained, first as a pupil, later as an associate, for the next twenty years. LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 1 Literary Criticism and Theories Notes At Plato's Academy At seventeen, in B.C. 368-67, Aristotle began the first phase of his career-a twenty years' residence in Athens as a member of Plato's Academy. When Plato died in 347, the Academy came under the control of his nephew Speusippus, who favored mathematical aspects of Platonism that Aristotle, who was more interested in biology, found uncongenial. Perhaps for this reason - but more likely because of growing anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens - Aristotle decided to leave. He accepted the invitation of Hermeias, his friend and a former fellow student in the Academy, to join his philosophical circle on the coast of Asia Minor in Assos, where Hermeias (a former slave) had become ruler. Aristotle remained there for three years. During this period he married Hermeias's niece, Pythias, with whom he had a daughter, also named Pythias. In 345, Aristotle moved to Mytilene, on the nearby island of Lesbos, where he joined another former Academic, Theophrastus, who was a native of the island. Theophrastus, at first Aristotle's pupil and then his closest colleague, remained associated with him until Aristotle's death. While they were on Lesbos the biological research of Aristotle and Theophrastus flourished. In 343, Philip of Macedon invited Aristotle to his court to serve as tutor to his son Alexander, then thirteen years old. What instruction Aristotle gave to the young man who was to become Alexander the Great is not known, but it seems likely that Aristotle's own interest in politics increased during his stay at the Macedonian court. In 340 Alexander was appointed regent for his father and his studies with Aristotle ended. The events of the next five years are uncertain. Perhaps Aristotle stayed at the court; perhaps he went back to Stagira. But in 335, after the death of Philip, he returned to Athens for his second long sojourn. Just outside the city he rented some buildings and established his own school, the Lyceum, where he lectured, wrote, and discussed philosophy with his pupils and associates. Under his direction, they carried out research on biological and other philosophical and scientific topics. Theophrastus worked on botany, Aristoxenus on music; Eudemus wrote a history of mathematics and astronomy, Meno of medicine, and Theophrastus of physics, cosmology, and psychology. In addition, Aristotle and his group produced a monumental account of the constitutions of 158 Greek city-states - an account Aristotle draws on in his own Politics. Tutor to Alexander The second phase of his carrer may be said to begin when after three years in Lesbos, passed in the study of Biology, in B.C. 343-42. But, despite the presence of philosophy, the court of Pella remained barbarous and sinister. To marry a new bride, Philip put away his Queen Olympias; in B.C. 336, she had him murdered, and her son Alexander came to the throne. After an absence of some twelve years, Aristotle returned to the quiet of Athens. Some twelve years more of life were left to him. This was the beginning of the third phase in his career. Aristotle was invited by King Philip to his capital of Pella, as tutor to Alexander, then only thirteen or fourteen; mainly, it seems, in political science and in literature. For Aristotle refused to follow the puritanical ban of his master, Plato, on poetry in education. Return to Athens: His School No doubt Athenian patriots, like Demosthenes, may have knit their brows at the return of this alien, for he was the hereditary friend of that Macedonian monarchy which had crushed Greek freedom at Chaeronea (338); he was friend, too, of Antipater, made regent of Macedon while Alexander stormed through Asia ; and foe to extreme democracy, as to all extremes. But Aristotle was a self-possessed character. On hearing that some one had abused him, “Let him even beat 2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY Unit 1: Aristotle: The Poetics—Introduction to the Author and the Text me”, was his traditional reply, “provided I am not there.” At Athens, though broken, was still the Notes intellectual capital of Greece, “the eye of Greece”.