Table matière anglaise 30 01 09 97-2003

8/8/2019 Table matire anglaise 30 01 09 97-2003

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INTRODUCTION

- Literary theory and literary studies

- Rapid change and fragmentation

- Pathways into the discipline

- Acknowledgments

ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM, MYTH CRITICISMUnconscious

Collective unconscious

Literary theory (Freud Jung)

Archetypal criticism

Rooted in folk culture

AUTHOR (Lat. Auctor < augere = increase, promote, originate)

- Biographically oriented forms of criticismMuch criticism has an outspoken biographical orientation

Respectable literary genre

Psychological and psychoanalytical studies of literature

Legal notions (copyright, plagiarism)

Non-technical sphere of common-sense understanding

- Limitations of the conceptSource-effect relationship

Psychologically speaking (text are rarely the direct expression of personality)

Historically speaking (authors authority)18th c (Romantic), Middle Ages, today (publishing houses, production, copy-editing, co-authorship)

- Exorcising the author from literary studies

New Criticism (Internal fallacy)Narratology

Poststructuralism

BAKHTIN CIRCLE

- DialoguePrinciple

Saussurean structuralism

Monolinguism

- The polyphonic novel and carnival

- Impact

CATHARSISPlato (mimesis)

Aristotle (catharsis)

Modern psychotherapeutic methods

COGNITIVE POETICS

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE


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- Method and scope of applicationGenetic relationship

Typological relationship

- Comparative literature today

CRITICISMTerm (broadest narrower sense)

Selection process

- Common characteristics of the three of criticismEntire process of literary communication

Same function

A priori norm-governed conception

- In which way are the three types different (and complementary)?Different positions on the timeline of literary evolution and canonisation processes

The scope of the literary repertory that the various critics are meant to cover

Several related differences

- Historical evolutions

CULTURAL STUDIESEncompass the study of literature

In terms of object it investigates

In terms of methods and approaches

Sources: structuralism and marxism

DECONSTRUCTION and POSTRUCTURALISM

- Deconstruction : difference

DifferenceExample (pig swine)

Signifier

- The metaphysics of presenceThe metaphysics of presence

Presence >< absence

Speech > writing

- Deconstruction as reading texts against the grainDeconstruction = body of subversive readings of philosophical and literary texts

Aporias

Double dimension of violence (binary oppositions, hierarchy of the term)

Massive repression of other potential relationships

Free play of language n their own texts

- PoststructuralismYale School

Stylistic obscurity/ intellectual elitism irritation

Radical scepticism and relativism

Poststructuralist attitudes with deconstruction

Influences

DISCOURSE

ECOCRITICISMCentral issue


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Political and literary agenda

The term ecocriticism

Ecolinguistics

EMPATHY

EPIC THEATREBrecht

Verfremdungseffekt

Combination of different technical devices

Brechts general aim

Defamiliarisation

FEMINIST CRITICISM and GENDER STUDIES

- A basic distinction, leading to gender studiesDifference between sex and gender

Typical effect of ideology

Gender studies (queer studies)

- Feminism (and gender studies) in literary criticismRewriting literary history to undo the effects of womans systematic exclusion

Studying representations of women in male-authored works

Studying the role of the reader in the creation of gender stereotypes

Criticising patriarchal language and inventing more woman-friendly discorses

- Impact

GENRE (Fr. < Lat. genus / generis = birth, origin, kind)- A typology of the three basic genres

- A flexible concept of genre

Material form

Use of media

Style

Structure

Representational mode

Audience

Function effect

- Functions of genres- From genre to genre-system

HERMENEUTICS (Gr. hermeneuein = to explain, to interpret)Definition

- Biblical interpretationHistorically

From the early Christianity onwards

From Church Fathers and in the Middle Ages

From the twelfth century onwards (schema)

The humanistic movement, the Reformation and the Enlightenment

- Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768 1834)Subjective and historical dimension


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The hermeneutical circle

- Wilhelm Dilthey (1833 1911)

- Later developments

HISTORY OF LITERARY STUDIESVagueness of the notion of literary theoryDifficulty of limiting the object in space

Temporal axis

Narrative sequences

Influenced by theory and ideology

- The history of literature and the history of literary studiesAnalogy between historiographical project at the object- and meta-levels

Overlap between the history of literature and the history of literary studies

- The options of this coursebookIn order of space

In terms of literary theory

Chronologically speaking

IDEOLOGY CRITIQUE (Fr. idologie = science of ideas [coined 1796])

- Mainstream Marxism

- Later interpretations (Althusser)

- Ideology and literature

IMPLIED AUTHORDistinction from the real author as a historical person

Distinction from the narrator

Awareness of some individual presence standing

IMPLIED READER

INSPIRATION (Lat. in-spirare = breathe, inhale, blow into)Definition

Origin of the writers inspiration

Inspiration as an external force (muses, Holy Spirit)

Inspiration as an inner force (eighteenth century, genius)

- Inspiration and perspirationGenetic studies

Permanent interplay between (un)conscious energies and activities

Typology of writers: poeta vates, poeta faber, poeta doctus

INTERTEXTUALITYGeneric intertextuality

Specific intertextuality

- Forms of specific intertextuality- positive vs polemical

- intralingual vs interlingual vs intersemiotic

- repetitio vs adiectio vs detractio vs transmutatio vs immutatioEvolution of Western literary history has displayed general patterns in its use of intertextuality:- throughout the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Neoclassical period


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- from the Romantic age onwards

- in modernism and postmodernism

- Theoretical implications in a poststructuralist perspective

LANGUAGE OF SCIENCEVariety of language (technical terms; formalisation, elevated and impersonal register)Opposition between science and literature language

The science communication is seriously hampered by

- the absence of a recognised universally applied terminology;

- the presence of scientific rhetoric

- The terminology of literary studiesTerminological problem

Literary terms are general vocabulary of the language

LIBERAL HUMANISM

LITERARY HISTORY

- The selection of data (corpus definition)Vagueness

Space

Time

- The combination of data (narratives, meaningful sequences) (narrativity)

- Pragmatism, theory and ideology as major constraints

MARXIST APPROACHES TO LITERATUREMarx and achievements

- General characteristicsPolitical, materialist, teleological

Base/ superstructure

In the field of cultural study

- Two famous exponents: Lucas and BrechtReflection theory

Realist novel type

Opposed to Modernist experimental writing (formal experiment)

Brecht

- The Frankfurt SchoolCritical theory of culture and society

Critical theorists- Marxist literary and cultural theory today

Changes

Legacy

MEDIA (Lat. plural of medium = middle)Physical or material existence

Three basic types of media: oral communication, written communication (printing), electronic communication,

new digital technologies

- Power relationships and questions of representationsImpact on the communicative act as such

Relevant criteria to describe and compare media (time frame, space, extent, quantitative proportions,individualisation, interactivity, gate controls, multimedia recording)


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The role of mass media

Writers and readers do not share the same immediate context and may even belong to very different cultures

METATEXT, METADISCOURSE (Gr. meta = after, following, with)

- Literature and writing about literature (shifting borderlines)- Functions and requirements of metaliterary discourses

MIMESISMimesis imitation

Central issue in literary theory form its beginning

Plato sRepublic

Aristotle (+ paradox)

Theories of mimesis have profoundly influenced literary theories until today (before the nineteenth century, the

romantics, Realism and Naturalism in the nineteenth century and Marxism)

MODEL OF COMMUNICATION (Roman Jakobsons)Roman Jakobson

Diagram of the model

Different functions are copresent in literature

Limitations (idealised view, ideological bias, static definition)

NATION, NATIONALISM AND LITERATURESocial identity

Historical constructs

Institutions

Media- Origin, identity, language

Common origin

Common identity (conformity, autonomous territory, self-determination)

Common language

- Nationalism and literatureCanon

Criticism and education system

National philologies

Anthology and patrimony (teaching system)

NEW CRITICISMAmerican critical movement (+ Wellek and Warren)

Forerunner and influence (GB + practical criticism)

In Germany and France

- General characteristicsUniqueness and autonomy of the individual literary work

Abstracting the individual work from context and influences (intentional fallacy, affective fallacy, heresy

of paraphrase)

Unity

Anti-theoretical stance

- ImpactObjective

Selective (lyrical poetry)

Role of the reader

Greater ideological involvement


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Standard methodology

NEW HISTORICISM

NORMS and MODELS

- Norms and literature

PHILOLOGY (Gr. love of language)Late 18th c (Western imperialism)

19th c

// study of written texts from the past

2nd half of 19th c

Early 20th c

20th c

POSITIVISM (Eng. < Fr.: positive = definite, certain, real)Origins

- General characteristics

- Impact

POSTCOLONIAL THEORY, POSTCOLONIAL STUDIESEmpire building

Third World

- A radically broader scopeRevaluation of literary work written in the former colonies (settler and invaded)Migration

Greater openness to new genres

- Ideology critique, political actionPolitical agenda

Negritude

Experiment with hybrid cultural forms

At the level of genre

At the linguistic level

Theoretical eclecticism

- ImpactCommonwealth Literature

Sudden rise into prominence of postcolonial theory

PRAGUE SCHOOL (or PRAGUE LINGUISTIC CIRCLE)

- Backgrounds: structuralism, formalism, philosophyDiachrony synchrony (>< Saussure) influence

Russian formalism

- A functional approachMain difference between Russian formalism and Prague structuralism (function > form)

Model of communication (Jakobson)

Functional principle applied in the field of literary studies (artefact aesthetic object) (Mukarovsky)

Functions set a norms and expectations

Applied to individual text

- Impact


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Broader semiotic theory

Greater attention to the reader who concretises the text

Linguistic theory noted internationally (Jakobson)

PRODUCTION and DISTRIBUTION

- Aspect of the book industry: publishingTasks of the publishing house in the literary process

Most publishing houses are commercial enterprises

- Aspect of the book industry: three zones of literary activityLiterature is a complex and stratified system

Imprints

Important part of literary activity which exists outside the continuum

Modern computer technology and the Internet

PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACHESTheory for psychic disorders

- Sigmund Freud (1856 1939)Scheme: the basic terms of the body vs society conflict

Libido and sexuality

Importance of childhood (desire >< conflict repression/ sublimation)

Oedipus complex

Feminists

Adulthood (compromise formation, slips, mental disorder) dynamic process

Dream; dream-work mechanisms of the dream work: condensation, displacement, symbolism,

secondary revision

Literary work

Low opinion of writers

The study of the joke

- Jacques Lacan (1901 1981)Construction of the individual subject with society

Child as a speaking subject/ language creates the subjects alienation

Language creates unconscious desire

PUBLIC INTERLOCUTEUR, PUBLIC MILIEU, GRAND PUBLICPublic interlocuteur

Public milieu

Grand public

READER

READER-ORIENTED THEORIES

- The return of the reader in the 1960s

- Wolfgang Isers Wirkungssthetik (theory of aesthetic response)Leerstellen

Reading is a temporal process

The dynamics of reading involves the permanent formation, assessment and revision of retrospective and

propective hypotheses

Implied evaluative side to Isers theory / literary value

- Hans-Robert Jausss Rezeptionssthetik (reception theory)Iser experimental >< conventionalHorizon of expectation


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Deviation

Redefine literary history

- Norbert Groebens empirical reader researchReader

Literary studies

- Stanley Fishs affective stylistics1st model (// Iser)2nd model (>< Iser relativistic and subjectivist position

3rd model (reader = member of an interpretive community)

RHETORIC (Gk techne rhetorike = art of speech)Definition

Initially

Later

Characteristics, rules and conventions (invention, disposition, elocution, memoria, action)

- Historical sketchIn the Middle Ages

During the Renaissance and the Neoclassical periodThe nineteenth century (decline)

The twentieth century (revival + media)

- Rhetoric and manipulation: ethical concerns

RUSSIAN FORMALISM

- Two centres, twin ambitionsMoscow Linguistic centre

The Society for the study of Poetic Language

- Early formalist positions: ShklovskyMaterial vs devise >< content vs form

In narrative fiction: fibula vs siuzhetIn poetry

Defamiliarisation (// Brecht)

- Late Russian formalism: Tynyanov

- ImpactSimilarities between Russian formalism and New Criticism (literary studies, autonomy and specificity,

Modernist literature)

Difference between New Critics and Russian formalism

Todorov

SCIENCE

- Basic concepts and the views of Karl PopperRegularity, causality, deterministic, probabilistic, model of reality, explanations, predictions, complexity

Prove, verify, falsify, disprove

Induction, deduction

Hypothetical or provisional character

Testing hypothesis: logical consistency, observation and experiments

- Thomas Kuhns concept of the scientific paradigmObservation is likely to be selective

Understanding of the phenomena involves an act of interpretation

The scientific paradigm (competing paradigms may also coexist at the same time)

Serious damages to the mechanism of falsification

SCIENCE AND LITERARY STUDIES


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Dilthey

Against a rigid distinction between human sciences and nature sciences

- A science of literature?Epistemological obstacles:

Mental reality

Historical angle

Multitude of complexly related variablesIn literary studies the researcher is more problematically entangled in the object of study

Abandon the scientific model for the hermeneutical one

SEMIOTICS, SEMIOLOGY (Gr. sema = sign)

- Ferdinand de Saussure

- Charles Sanders Peirce

- Impact

STRUCTURALISMBased on two principles (network of structural relationships; objective and scientific)

- Central conceptsCours de linguistique gnrale

Sign

Sign extralinguistic referent

Exception: onomatopoeia

Relative motivation

Language = complex self-regulating structure

Syntagmatic relations

Paradigmatic relationships

Language >< parole

Diachronic synchronic

- SemioticsCultural behaviour

Levi Strauss

- Structuralism and literary studiesEffects on literary studies (linguistics, textual structure, literary and textual codes, theory rather than

theory, anti-humanism (erosion of the human subject), anti-elitist and inclusive conception of culture)

STYLE and STYLISTICS (Lat. stylus = sharp-pointed instrument for incising letters on a wax

tablet)Dualistic understanding of style

Semanticisation of form

Analysis of text in terms of their linguistic features

- Stylistic variation

- Conflicting perspectivesHigh scientific ambitions

TEXT (Fr. < Lat. texere = to weave)Possible use of the term:

- for text edition

- for semiotics

- for text linguistics and stylistics

- for narratologyGenre-neutrality

Text as an individually defined or definable unit of discourse


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- linearity

- autonomy

- intentionality

- Challenging the traditional text conceptErosion of the text concept

Hypertext and related digital text technologies

UTILE DULCIDefinition and Horace

From Horace onwards until the end of the Neoclassical period (expansion)

In the Middle Ages (didactic orientation)

From the middle of the nineteenth century onwards (attacked)

REFERENCES AND SOURCES

INDEX OF CRITICS AND SCHOLARS

INDEX OF TERMS AND CONCEPTS

DIAGRAM: POSSIBLE PATHWAYS THROUGH THESE NOTES

DIAGRAM: MIND MAP OF MAJOR CRITICAL SCHOOL AND PARADIGMS

DIAGRAM: SURVEY OF INTERTEXTUAL AND METATEXTUAL RELATIONSHIPS

Table matière anglaise 30 01 09 97-2003

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