DOCSLIB.ORG

Copernican Revolution" in Philosophy and the Romantic"Revolution*In English Literature

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Copernican Revolution KANT'S "COPERNICAN REVOLUTION" IN PHILOSOPHY AND THE ROMANTIC"REVOLUTION*IN ENGLISH LITERATURE by GRAHAM NICOL FORST B.A., University of British Columbia, 1962 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the.Department of Engli sh We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1970 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date £?V I, / j?4 Supervisor: Dr. Victor Hopwood "KANT'S 'COPERNICAN REVOLUTION' IN PHILOSOPHY AND THE ROMANTIC 'REVOLUTION' IN ENGLISH LITERATURE" ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to provide philosophical insight into the goals and achievement of the English Romantic poets by illus• trating the relation between their understanding of the mind as generative of experience and the concepts of human freedom and creativity formally deduced by Kant in his Transcendental Idealism. Primarily, this relation is defined in terms of Kant's claim in the Critique of Judgment that the aesthetic function "mediates between" or "reconciles" the polarized realms of man and nature. But because the Critique of Judgment has been traditionally accepted as a mere afterthought for Kant, the force of this claim has been greatly underestimated. As a consequence, the full extent of the relation be• tween Kantian and Romantic thought has not been appreciated. Therefore, I have introduced this study with a general survey of Kant's "Critical" teaching, designed primarily to examine the significance of Kant's claim for the aesthetic function, while at the same time outlining the philosophical background against which my main thesis is to be developed. Special attention is paid here to those aspects of Kant's system which most clearly define the terms of his own break from the dogmatic philos• ophies of his eighteenth-century predecessors, and which appear to relate most closely to Romantic thought: the deduction of the Productive Imagination and the consequent refutation of associationism; the ii necessity to distinguish between Verstand (Understanding) and Vernunft (Reason); the interpretation of man as self-legislating in the moral sphere, and the discussion of the origin and vital function of the sense of beauty and artistic creativity. In the second and more important part of this study, much of what is demanded in Kant by the sheer necessity of philosophical thought is shown to be present in English Romantic poetry as achievement and act. First, I demonstrate that the English Romantics were engaged in the same kind of inward-turning quest for certainty and permanence which led Kant to reject the dogmatic rationalism of the Enlightenment in favour of the "revolutionary" thesis that criteria of truth, goodness, and beauty are grounded not in "outward forms," but in the forms of human consciousness themselves. Second, I show how this reversal of the terms of naive empiricism leads the Romantics" into the same dualism of fact and value which emerges from Kant's critical investigation of human reason. Third, I show how the Romantics, like Kant, regarded this dualism as overcome in the aesthetic sphere, through the sensually "liberating" agency of beauty in art, and beauty or sublimity in nature. In this section my concern is not so much with the actual presence in Romantic literature of Kantian or Kant-like ideas, as with describing how Transcendentalist concepts "became constitutive" of Romantic poetry in terms of myth and symbol, and why such ideas were necessary for the "release" of poetry from eighteenth-century concepts. Thus, by respecting throughout the difference both in purpose and means between poetry and philosophy, Kant's theories and Romantic practise reveal themselves as complementary rather than antithetic modes of response to the spiritual and intellectual climate they shared. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . 1 PART ONE: KANT'S "COPERNICAN REVOLUTION" Chapter . I. THE BACKGROUND OF THE REVOLUTION 11 II. THE TRANSFORMATIONAL NATURE OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE ... 15 The "Transcendental Aesthetic" ..... 17 The "Transcendental Analytic" 20 The "Transcendental Dialectic" 26 III. REASON IN PRACTISE: KANT'S ETHICAL SYSTEM 33 IV. THE CRITIQUE OF JUDGMENT: ART AS MEDIATOR BETWEEN SENSE AND MORAL IDEAS Beauty as a "Necessary Condition of Human Being" . 40 The "Four Moments" of the "Critique of Aesthetical Judgment" 43 The Feeling of the Sublime 48 Genius 52 Beauty as a Symbol of the Morally Good 56 PART TWO: KANT'S "COPERNICAN REVOLUTION" AND ENGLISH ROMANTICISM V. KANT'S "TRANSCENDENTAL" METHOD AND THE QUEST FOR PERMANENCE IN ROMANTIC THOUGHT 62 VI. SENSATIONALISM IN ROMANTIC THOUGHT "One-Fold Vision" 71 Beyond Space and Time 83 iv Chapter VII. THE VERSTAND, THE VERNUNFT, AND THE BOUNDS OF INTELLECT IN ROMANTIC THOUGHT 91 The "False Secondary Power" 93 The Vernunft and the Status of the Metaphysical Ideas in Romantic Thought 103 VIII. FROM "PRACTICAL REASON" TO THE ETHICS OF LOVE 120 IX. THE CRITIQUE OF JUDGMENT AND ROMANTIC POETICS . Function: Art as Mediator Between Man and Nature 139 Effect: "Liberating the Sensuous" 149 ".Immediate Pleasure" 151 Beauty, Sublimity, and the "Free Play" of the Faculties 165 Source: The Genesis of Artistic Creativity LawfulIness Without Law 184 Kant's Einbildungsk'raft and the Romantic "Imagination" 192 SELECTED LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED 213 v INTRODUCTION Many eminent critics and historians have regarded German Idealism and English Romanticism as presenting similar kinds of responses to the dogmatic rationalism of the Enlightenment. A.C. Bradley, for example, often spoke of these movements as sharing a "community of spirit,"^ and he saw the poetry of Wordsworth as an imaginative expression of the same mind which, in his day, produced in Germany great philosophies. His poetic experience, his intuitions, his single thoughts, even his large views, correspond in a striking way, sometimes in a startling way, with ideas methodically developed'by Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer.2 Similarly, G.A. Borgese described Kant's revolutionary insights as "the most authoritative signposts on the road to the real synthesis and re• habilitation of romanticism,"3 and Samuel Monk, in his classic book on The Sublime, takes Kant's philosophy and the art of the Romantics as "symptoms of a changed point of view" and holds that there is a general similarity between the point of view of the Critique of Judgment and the Prelude; and that the Prelude differs from the Essay on Man in a manner vaguely analogous to the way in which the Critique of Pure Reason differs from An_ Essay on Human Understanding.4 ^"English Poetry and German Philosophy in the Age of Wordsworth," in A Miscellany (London, 1931), 107. ^Oxford Lectures on Poetry (London, 1914), 129-30. 3"Romanticism," Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York, 1937). 4Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1960, 5. 1 2 And John Crowe Ransom writes that When we plunge into the first-rate sequence of poets which includes Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, we at once gather the impression that they are purposeful, dedicated, even programmatic, to a degree hardly equalled by another set of individual poets living in a single age. They had a common preoccupation with a certain understanding of poetry, and they had got it partly from the literary critics, but more and more it tended to go back to Kant, or to those critics who had assimilated their own view to Kant's.^ But in spite of the universality of this belief in an intellectual kinship between Kant and the Romantics, or between Transcendental Idealism and Romanticism generally, surprisingly little scholarly effort has been expended in probing into the nature and extent of this relation• ship. Undoubtedly, part of the problem lies in the famous obliquity of Kant's style, which makes his ideas available only to the most resolute and patient readers: even Schopenhauer was known to have lamented over Kant's "symmetrical architectronic amusements." Also, the old dispute between Socrates and Ion survives, splitting teachers of philosophy from those of literature in the senseless haggle over who holds the patent on "Truth." And now we have that bete noire of modern education, academic specialization, all but stopping communication between the various disciplines in the modern university, causing it to resemble, in Theodore Roszak's words, "nothing so much as that highly refined, all-purpose brothel Jean Genet describes in his play The Balcony. The Concrete Universal: Observations on the Understanding of Poetry," in Poems and Essays (New York, 1955), 161. c Cited by J.H. Bernard, in the Introduction to his translation of Kant's Critique of Judgment (New York, 1951), xiv. This edition cited hereafter as C_ of_ J_. 7The Dissenting Academy (New York, 1967), 12. 3 But in spite of the narrowly sectarian attitudes which character• ize modern scholarship in the humanities, there is a great deal to be gained in placing philosophy and literature side by side as we seek understanding of the nature of man's response to his environment. For the world of the poet and the philosopher are not of gold and of brass (placed in either order)--or even iron--but offer equally valuable and equally comprehensive modes of interpreting the difference between appearance and reality; what has been and is, and what might be and ought to be; of fixing the limits of possible insight, or of determining the meaning or final cause of human existence.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Metaphor-II Metaphor-II Contents: 10.1 Dead Metaphors 10.2 Conceptual
    Metaphor-II Linguistic Stylistics Metaphor-II Figures of Speech Paper Coordinator Prof. Ravinder Gargesh Module ID & Name Lings_P-LS10 Metaphor-II Content Writer Dr. V.P. Sharma Email id [email protected] Phone 9312254857 Contents: 10.1 Dead Metaphors 10.2 Conceptual Metaphor Theory 10.3 Extended Metaphor 10.4 Mixed Metaphor 10.5 Metaphor in Literary and Non-literary discourse 10.1 Dead Metaphors We have noted that a metaphor is characterized by linguistic deviation. This characteristic allows metaphor, particularly poetic metaphors, to create novel and original combinations of ideas, objects and sensations. But as they come into common use, the novelty wears off and there is no perception of semantic deviation. More significantly, they lose their iconicity: in ‘root cause of the problem’ or ‘heated argument’, the original metaphor has lost its figurative ‘charge’; ‘root cause of a problem’ is simply the ‘fundamental reason for the occurrence of the problem’, and ‘heated argument ‘ is another expression for ‘angry exchange of words’. Such metaphors are dead metaphors. But metaphors never really die. The metaphors that ‘die’ in poetic language come to ‘live’ in ordinary language. The habit of words to extend their meaning by metaphor and then cease to be metaphorical is a fact of language. It further allows metaphors to be used to fill gaps in vocabulary: leg of a table, wings of a building, clock hands, World Wide Web, crashing or hanging (as in computer hangs), surf, crash course. In such cases of metaphorical extensions, there are no literal substitutes for these expressions. This is true of all languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Creating Literary Analysis
    Creating Literary Analysis v. 1.0 This is the book Creating Literary Analysis (v. 1.0). This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. This book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book. Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. More information is available on this project's attribution page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/attribution.html?utm_source=header). For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/). You can browse or download additional books there. ii Table of Contents About the Authors................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgments................................................................................................................. 2 Dedications............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Theschool of Letters Becamei1!A School of Letters and Original Writ
    Department of Philosophy, Oblo State University 1873-1970 When the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College held its first classes on Sep- tember 17, 18 73, therewere neitherphilosophy courses as such nor philosophy teachers. In Thelm29l of Letters,however, "Logic--Formal andApplied'' was taught under the rubric The English Language", and Plato' s Phaedowas read in a course called ''The Greek Language". The Rev. Joseph Mi llikin taught the former course and, though he never became a member of the phi losophy s tafff , he contin- ued in later yearsto teach philosophy courses from a basein the English · department. In 1874-75 TheSchool of Letters becameI1!A School of Letters and Philosophy. With this arrangement there were added coursesin Political 1cOOOUJ1 and Civil Polity, and these weretaught by Professor William Colvin, In the Annual Report for 1878·79, the following comment appearsconcerning the place of rhetoric and logic in the second year program: Rhetoric and Logiccome in the second year--rhetoric as an aid to original writ ing, •• well as just criticism and enjoyment of others' productions; and logic, primarily, as the indispensable foundation and ever-present, though often hidden, factor in all good writing; secondly, for its bearing upon the several sciences and sorts of research taught in the College, thirdly, as an introduction to philosophical reading fourthly, as a mental discipline, than which thereis none better. In June, 1879, the Board of Trustees created a new department of History and Philosophy". Assigned to that department (as its only member) was John 6. Short, A. M. , of Columbus". President Orton, in his Annual Reportfor 1879 , wrote I A positive new addition of great value hasbeen made to our educational work by the establishment of a department of Philosophy and History.
    [Show full text]
  • CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical Framework in This
    ADLN Perpustakaan Universitas Airlangga CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical Framework In this chapter, the writer will explain about the theory which is applied to analyze Rabbit Hole play as the chosen literary work in this study. Regarding the statement of the problem, the theory which is used in this study is New Criticism; which means the approach based only on the text itself. Besides explaining about New Criticism as the main theory and several formal elements such as characterization, plot, symbol, and also the theme which is the main idea of the story, this chapter also contains related studies with the similar issue that can support this study. There will be three related studies for this study that will be discussed in the end of this chapter. First, the writer will explain about the main theory; that is New Criticism. New Criticism is an approach which focuses on the text itself to find the meaning of a literary work. New Criticism refuses to pay attention to the external factors such as author’s background, reader’s response, and another factor which is not merely about the text of literary work. According to Tyson, the external factors such as author’s background cannot always be a guide to provide information to analyze a literary work (Tyson 136), because New Criticism focuses only on the text, Skripsi BECCA’S SURVIVAL ATTEMPT AFTER THE DEATH OF HER BELOVEDLUTFITA MAUDY PRASTIKASARI SON IN DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE’S RABBIT HOLE: A NEW CRITICISM STUDY ADLN Perpustakaan Universitas Airlangga the validity of the text meaning is reasonable.
    [Show full text]
  • In Literary Theory: a Comparative Critical Study Mahmoud Mohamed Ali Ahmad Elkordy University of South Carolina
    University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2016 The evelopmeD nt of ‘Meaning’ in Literary Theory: A Comparative Critical Study Mahmoud Mohamed Ali Ahmad Elkordy University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Elkordy, M. M.(2016). The Development of ‘Meaning’ in Literary Theory: A Comparative Critical Study. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3794 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم وبه نستعين وصلى هللا وسلم وبارك على محمد النبي اﻷمي وعلى آله وصحبه وأحبابه أجمعين يارب ارض عنا آمين الحمد هلل في اﻷولى واﻵخرة وسﻻم على عباده الذين اصطفى هللا خير The Development of ‘Meaning’ in Literary Theory: A Comparative Critical Study by Mahmoud Mohamed Ali Ahmad Elkordy Bachelor of Arabic Language Al-Azhar University, 2010 Master of Arts University of London, 2011 ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2016 Accepted by: Paul Allen Miller, Major Professor Maḥmūd Lāshīn, Committee Member Jeanne Garane, Committee Member Alexander Beecroft, Committee Member Lacy Ford, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم وبه نستعين وصلى هللا وسلم وبارك على محمد النبي اﻷمي وعلى آله وصحبه وأحبابه أجمعين يارب ارض عنا آمين الحمد هلل في اﻷولى واﻵخرة وسﻻم على عباده الذين اصطفى هللا خير Abstract This research project studies different approaches to the question of meaning in literary texts in medieval Islamic critical traditions and modern Western literary criticism.
    [Show full text]
  • Aristotle's Poetics
    Aristotle's Poetics José Angel García Landa Universidad de Zaragoza http://www.garcialanda.net 1. Introduction 2. The origins of literature 3. The nature of poetry 4. Theory of genres 5. Tragedy 6. Other genres 7. The Aristotelian heritage José Angel García Landa, "Aristotle's Poetics" 2 1. Introduction Aristotle (384-322 BC) was a disciple of Plato and the teacher of Alexander the Great. Plato's view of literature is heavily conditioned by the atmosphere of political concern which pervaded Athens at the time. Aristotle belongs to a later age, in which the role of Athens as a secondary minor power seems definitely settled. His view of literature does not answer to any immediate political theory, and consequently his critical approach is more intrinsic. Aristotle's work on the theory of literature is the treatise Peri poietikés, usually called the Poetics (ca. 330 BC). Only part of it has survived, and that in the form of notes for a course, and not as a developed theoretical treatise. Aristotle's theory of literature may be considered to be the answer to Plato's. Of course, he does much more than merely answer. He develops a whole theory of his own which is opposed to Plato's much as their whole philosophical systems are opposed to each other. For Aristotle as for Plato, the theory of literature is only a part of a general theory of reality. This means that an adequate reading of the Poetics 1 must take into account the context of Aristotelian theory which is defined above all by the Metaphysics, the Ethics, the Politics and the Rhetoric.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Theory, an Introduction Second Edition
    Literary Theory Second Edition For Charles Swann and Raymond Williams Literary Theory An Introduction SECOND EDITION Terry Eagleton St Catherine '5 College Oxford Blackwell Publishing © 1983,1996 by Terry Eagleton BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020,USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Terry Eagleton to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, . photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 1983 Second edition 1996 10 2005 Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Eagleton, Terry, 1943- Literary Theory: an introduction / Terry Eagleton - 2nd ed. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-631-20188-2 (pbk: alk. paper) 1. Criticism-History-20th Century. 2. Literature-History and criticism- Theory, etc. 1.Title PN94.E2 1996 96-4572 801'.95'0904-dc20 CIP ISBN-13:978-0-631-20188-5(pbk: alk. paper) A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10.5 on 12.5 pt Ehrhardt by Best-set Typesetter Ltd, Hong Kong Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd, Kundli The publisher's policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices.
    [Show full text]
  • The Advantages of Critical and Systematic Literary Taxonomies: a Review Article of New Work by Cerquiglini, Juvan, and Zima
    CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 Purdue University Press ©Purdue University Volume 2 (2000) Issue 4 Article 14 The Advantages of Critical and Systematic Literary Taxonomies: A Review Article of New Work by Cerquiglini, Juvan, and Zima Kristof Jacek Kozak University of Alberta Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <[email protected]> Recommended Citation Kozak, Kristof Jacek. "The Advantages of Critical and Systematic Literary Taxonomies: A Review Article of New Work by Cerquiglini, Juvan, and Zima." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 2.4 (2000): <https://doi.org/10.7771/ 1481-4374.1097> This text has been double-blind peer reviewed by 2+1 experts in the field.
    [Show full text]
  • Yrive:Rsity Af Galifarria, Irvif\~
    ..' ',.. WELLEK LIBRARY LECTURES YRive:rsity af GalifarRia, IrviF\~ '~n$)~ru MAY 16-18-19.1988 University Professor of English. Directo~ U.C.Humanities SPONSORED by Research Institute THE CRITICAL THEORY INSTITUTE lecture Series: IIA Reopening of Closure: Organicism Against Itself' Monday - '1:30 "The Figure in the Renaissance Poem as Bound and Unbounded" Wednesday - '1:30 "The Typological Imagination and Its Other: Prom Coleridge to the New Critics" , Thursday - '1:30 "Stricken by Metaphor: Some Thematic Consequences" For Information call UCI UNIVERSITY CLUB 17141 85G-5583 A BXBLXOGRAPHY ON MURRAY KRXEGER On the occasion of the 8th Wellek Library Lectures 1888 Previous Wellek Library Lectures Harold Bloom: The Breaking of the Vessels (1981) Perry Anderson: In the Tracks or Historical Materialism (1982) Frank Kermode: Forms of Attention (1983) Jacques Derrida: Memoires (1984) J. Hillis Miller: The Ethics of Reading (1985) Jean-Francois Lyotard: Peregrinations: Law~ Form. Event (1986) Louis Marin: Pascalian Propositions for Today (1987) A CHECKLIST OF WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT MURRAY KRIEGER: A Selected Bibliography Compiled by Eddie Yeghiayan Writings by Murray Krieger 1949 Review or Charles Tennyson's Alrred Tennyson. Christian Science Monitor (June 30. 1849):11. Review or David Dortort's The Post or Honor. Christian Science Monitor (May 13, 1848):20. Review or Jean Bloch-Michel's The Witness. Christian Science Monitor (October 6, 1949):15. Review of Ramon Jose Sender's The Sphere. Christian Science Monitor (l1ay 24, 1948): 18. Review or Walter Van Tilburg Clark's The Track or the Cat. Christian Science Monitor, (June 11, 1949):22. 1950 "Creative Criticism: A Broader View or Symbolism.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    Vol. 11, 2020 A new decade for social changes ISSN 2668-7798 www.techniumscience.com 9 772668 779000 Technium Social Sciences Journal Vol. 11, 84-95, September 2020 ISSN: 2668-7798 www.techniumscience.com The Prague School Theory of Drama & Theatre and SFL Patrice Quammie-Wallen The Hong Kong Polytechnic University [email protected] Abstract. The Prague Linguistic Circle’s theories of drama and theatre were ground-breaking in the early 20th century. While the many and varied writings of its scholars are only recently gaining global recognition the application of the many semiotic principles as it applies to the stage remain to be fully utilised. Literary analyses over the modern decades have comparatively ignored the play text for stylistic treatment, due significantly to the fact that a suitable framework that can manage the ‘combinatory quality of theatre’ remains at large. Systemic functional linguistics (SFL), a developed, language-based semiotic framework whose foundations share Prague School principles of structure and function, has been suggested to be capable of managing that combinatory quality. This paper, agreeing with that position, compares Prague School principles with that of SFL to advance the further position that combined use of SFL and Prague theatre theories can potentially construct that elusive primary dynamic connecting the page and the stage, as well as facilitate mutual development of both frameworks. Keywords. Prague School Drama and Theatre Theory, systemic functional linguistics, play text, semiotics, functional analysis 1. Introduction The original Prague school began as a collection of linguists and literature, music and theatre theoreticians in 1926 under Vilém Mathésius with Roman Jakobson serving as vice-president up till his exodus to America in 1941.
    [Show full text]
  • 136 Theory of Literature Rene Wellek and Austin Warren
    Theory of Literature Rene Wellek and Austin Warren (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948) Ritika Batabyal1 The 1944-46 collaboration between Rene Wellek and Austin Warren led to the publication of one of the most influential and comprehensive analysis in the field of literary theory, methodology and criticism. Their urge to provide an “organon” of method resulted in the coming of shape of Theory of Literature. Harcourt, Brace and Company first published the book in December 1948. In the Preface to the third edition of the book, it has been remarked that the book has been translated into Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, German, Portuguese, Hebrew and Gujarati. This explicitly evinces the impact of the book in 20th century literary scenario. Theory of literature is considered to be the first work to systematize literary theory. Though Wellek and Warren came from different backgrounds and training they believed that literary scholarship and criticism are compatible and literary study over all other things needs to be specifically literary. The book is divided into four sections encompassing a wide range of subjects. The first part deals with definitions and distinctions. Here Wellek and Warren delve with the nature and function of literature, and there is a constant endeavour to distinguish between literature and literary study. In this section the book also deals with literary theory, history and criticism and it tries to show that these are inter dependent and cannot be put into watertight compartments. The final chapter in this section tries to give a definition of General Literature, Comparative Literature and National Literature and in the process it lays down the major characteristics of General, Comparative, and National Literature.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study on Characterization of the Main Character in “The Fault in Our Stars”
    Research in English and Education (READ), 1(1), 26-33, August 2016 E-ISSN 2528-746X A Study on Characterization of the Main Character in “The Fault in Our Stars” Annisa Patmarinanta*1,2, Potjut Ernawati1 1Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh 2CV. Andil Muda Mandiri, Banda Aceh *Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract This research analyzes The Fault in Our Stars, a novel by Green (2012). The Fault in Our Stars is one of Green’s novels that reflect the reality of life. This research focuses on the personalities of Hazel and August, the main characters of the novel. The author took from (Djasi, 2000) as the framework of the main character characterization. The design of this study was a descriptive qualitative study. The aim of this study is to see Hazel’s and August’s personalities as the main character of The Fault in Our Stars. By examining the character dialog and quotes of the novel, and related issues on the topic are taken from printed and online including journal, books, and magazine. In order to achieve the goal of this study the researcher applied theory of character and characterization. Some characteristics that represent Hazel’s and August’s character traits are: depressed, books lover, fighter, stubborn, chivalrous, kind, and loyal. Besides characterization of the main characters this thesis also represents the theme of this novel that is fighting for life. Keywords: Characterization, character, the fault in our stars, novel. 1. INTRODUCTION There are several ways in expressing ideas especially in a literary work. There is a literary work that brings us to the world of dreams and takes us away from reality.
    [Show full text]