Literary Criticism from Plato to the Present An Introduction

by Habib, M. A. R.

• ISBN13: 9781405160346
• ISBN10: 1405160349
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-01-31
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Literary Criticism from Plato to the Presentpresents a concise and authoritative overview of the development of Western literary criticism and theory Encapsulates the major movements, figures, and texts of literary criticism Provides historical context and shows the interconnections between various theories

Author Biography

M. A. R. Habib received his doctorate from the University of Oxford. He is the author of seven books, including the highly acclaimed A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to the Present (2005) and Modern Literary Criticism and Theory (2008). A book of his poetry, Shades of Islam: Poems for a New Century, will appear in September 2010.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Classical Literary Criticism and Rhetoric	p. 7
Classical Literary Criticism	p. 9
Introduction to the Classical Period	p. 9
Plato (428-ca. 347 BC)	p. 10
Aristotle (384-322 BC)	p. 15
The Traditions of Rhetoric	p. 23
Greek Rhetoric	p. 23
Roman Rhetoric	p. 27
The Subsequent History of Rhetoric: An Overview	p. 30
The Legacy of Rhetoric	p. 31
Greek and Latin Criticism During the Roman Empire	p. 35
Horace (65-8 BC)	p. 35
Longinus (First Century AD)	p. 37
Neo-Platonism	p. 39
The Medieval Era	p. 47
The Early Middle Ages	p. 49
Historical Background	p. 49
Intellectual and Theological Currents	p. 51
The Later Middle Ages	p. 57
Historical Background	p. 57
Intellectual Currents of the Later Middle Ages	p. 58
The Traditions of Medieval Criticism	p. 60
Transitions: Medieval Humanism	p. 71
The Early Modern Period to the Enlightenment	p. 77
The Early Modern Period	p. 79
Historical Background	p. 79
Intellectual Background	p. 80
Confronting the Classical Heritage	p. 86
Defending the Vernacular	p. 89
Poetics and the Defense of Poetry	p. 91
Poetic Form and Rhetoric	p. 94
Neoclassical Literary Criticism	p. 98
French Neoclassicism	p. 100
Neoclassicism in England	p. 102
The Enlightenment	p. 114
Historical and Intellectual Background	p. 114
Enlightenment Literary Criticism: Language, Taste, and Imagination	p. 119
The Aesthetics of Kant and Hegel	p. 129
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)	p. 129
Hegel (1770-1831)	p. 134
Romaniticism and the Later Nineteenth Century	p. 143
Romanticism	p. 145
Germany	p. 148
France	p. 151
England	p. 153
America	p. 160
Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism, and Aestheticism	p. 168
Historical Background: The Later Nineteenth Century	p. 168
Realism and Naturalism	p. 169
Symbolism and Aestheticism	p. 174
The Heterological Thinkers	p. 181
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)	p. 181
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)	p. 182
Henri Bergson (1859-1941)	p. 185
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)	p. 185
The Twentieth Century: A Brief Introduction	p. 189
Introduction	p. 189
From Liberal Humanism to Formalism	p. 193
The Background of Modernism	p. 194
The Poetics of Modernism	p. 196
Formalism	p. 197
Russian Formalism	p. 197
The New Criticism	p. 202
Socially Conscious Criticism of the Earlier Twentieth Century	p. 206
F. R. Leavis	p. 206
Marxist and Left-Wing Criticism	p. 207
The Fundamental Principles of Marxism	p. 208
Marxist Literary Criticism: A Historical Overview	p. 210
Early Feminist Criticism: Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf	p. 212
Phenomenology, Existentialism, Structuralism	p. 219
Phenomenology	p. 220
Existentialism	p. 220
Heterology	p. 223
Structuralism	p. 224
The Era of Poststructuralism (I): Later Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Deconstruction	p. 230
Later Marxist Criticism	p. 231
Psychoanalysis	p. 233
Deconstruction	p. 240
The Era of Poststructuralism (II): Postmodernism, Modern Feminism, Gender Studies	p. 247
Jürgen Habermas (b. 1929)	p. 250
Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007)	p. 251
Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998)	p. 252
bell books (Gloria Jean Watkins; b. 1952)	p. 253
Modern Feminism	p. 253
Gender Studies	p. 258
The Later Twentieth Century: New Historicism, Reader-Response Theory, Postcolonial Criticism, Cultural Studies	p. 264
The New Historicism	p. 265
Reader-Response and Reception Theory	p. 268
Postcolonial Criticism	p. 270
Cultural Studies	p. 276
Epilogue: New Directions: Looking Back, Looking Forward	p. 279
Index	p. 289
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