Showing papers on "Criticism published in 1975"

Beginnings: Intention and Method

Abstract: Asking, "What is a beginning?", this book brings together history, philosophy, structuralism and critical theory in a work of literary criticism. Edward Said differentiates beginning from origin; the latter is divine, mythical and privileged, the former secular, humanly produced and ceaselessly re-examined. During the 18th and 19th centuries, he argues, the novel was the major attempt in Western literary culture to give beginnings an authorizing, institutional and specialized role in art, experience and knowledge. He traces this idea through the late-19th and early-20th centuries - to Freud's discoveries and the novels of modernist authors - and goes on to explore the question of beginnings in critical discourse and the work of the French structuralists. Combining philosophy and belles-lettres, the book refuses to divorce literature from history, philosophy and social discourse, thereby broadening the role of criticism, from celebration and orthodoxy to re-experiencing and questioning. It discusses Dickens, Conrad, Hardy, T.E. Lawrence, Nietzsche, Freud, Vico and Michel Foucault. Edward Said is the author of "Orientalism, Culture and Imperialism" and "Peace and Its Discontents".

Symbolic Interactionism : Genesis, Varieties and Criticism

Abstract: Symbolic interactionsim is of major importance in contemporary sociology. In this study, three authorities in the field collaborate to define symbolic interactionism and to describe, and present criticism of, the interactionist perspective. The contributions of G.H. Mead, J. Dewey, C.H. Cooley, W.I. Thomas and other theorists to the interactionist viewpoint on human behaviour and social life are examined. There is a systematic discussion of the diverse schools of thought within the field, including H.G. Blumer’s Chicago School, M.H. Kuhn’s Iowa School, E. Goffman’s dramaturgical approach and H. Garfinkel’s ethnomethodology. Criticisms of symbolic interactionism by both adherents and opponents to the perspective are selected and assessed. Throughout the book, the authors survey the social and intellectual sources of significant ideas, thereby incorporating a reflexive, sociology-of-sociology orientation.

Jane Austen and the War of Ideas

Abstract: Interest in Jane Austen has never been greater, but it is revitalized by the advent of feminist literary history. In a substantial new introduction Marilyn Butler places this book, which was first published in 1975, within the larger tradition of post-war criticism, from the generation of Edmund Wilson, Lionel Trilling, and F.R. Leavis to that of the now-dominant feminist critics. Professor Butler argues that Austen herself lived in contentious times. Like Wordsworth and Coleridge, she served her literary apprenticeship in the 1790s, the decade of the Terror and the Napoleonic Wars, an era in England of polemic and hysteria. Political partisanship shaped the novel of her youth, in content, form, and style. In this book, she now examines the very different schools of writing about Austen, and finds in them some unexpected continuities, such as a willingness to recruit her to modern aims, but a reluctance to engage with her own history. When the book first came out it attracted attention for its fresh, controversial approach to ideas on Austen. The new edition shows how the arrival of feminism has made the task of the literary historian more vital and challenging than ever. 'Marilyn Butler has written a deeply provoking, exciting book.' New Statesman 'There can be no doubt of the immense value for the critical reader of this impressive exposition of conflicting views concerning the individual and society at the end of the eighteenth century.' Review of English Studies 'interesting, knowledgeable, and controversial.' Times Higher Education Supplement

On the rationality of conversion1 (Part I)

Abstract: In a recent article in this journal I sketched the outline of a theory which I suggested might help us to make sense of a large but puzzling accumulation of data relating to the ‘conversion’ of African peoples to Islam and Christianity. The theory evoked a vigorous critical response, also in this journal, from the Islamist Humphrey Fisher. In the present paper I shall reply to Fisher's criticism. In the process, I hope to show that the theory can be used to make sense of a range of data not carefully considered in my previous article.

The Ancient View of Greek Art: Criticism, History, and Terminology

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'Kubla Khan' and the Fall of Jerusalem: The Mythological School in Biblical Criticism and Secular Literature 1770–1880

Abstract: Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Fall of Jerusalem: Coleridge's unwritten epic 2. The visionary character: revelation and the lyrical ballad 3. The oriental idyll 4. Holderlin's 'Patmos' ode and 'Kubla Khan': mythological doubling 5. Browning's St John: the casuistry of the higher criticism 6. Daniel Deronda and the conventions of fiction Appendices Notes Select bibliography Index.

Some Notes on Defining a "Feminist Literary Criticism"

Abstract: As yet, no one has formulated any exacting definition of the term "feminist criticism." When applied to the study of literature, it is used in a variety of contexts to cover a variety of activities, including (1) any criticism written by a woman, no matter what the subject; (2) any criticism written by a woman about a man's book which treats that book from a "political" or "feminist" perspective; and (3) any criticism written by a woman about a woman's book or about female authors in general. The kinds of investigations included under these last two general headings have allowed us to better define the portrayal of and attitudes toward female characters in a variety of authors and, where appropriate, helped us to expose the ways in which sexist bias and/or stereotyped formulations of women's roles in society become codified in literary texts. Those scholars and critics concerned with female authors in general have, in some cases, embarked on a still more ambitious quest. Taking their cue from Virginia Woolf 's fond hope that women would, someday, develop a literary style of their own, shaped "out of their own needs for their own uses," these critics have looked to the recent outpouring of women's materials in order to see if they might discern there some unique "feminine mode" or, as Virginia Woolf had assumed, the emergence of a feminine style expressive of a unique female "mind."' The major assumption behind this kind of criticism, of course, is the

The Selection of Literary Constructs

Abstract: T is an unrewarding time for literary history. The subject has captured new heights in the last few decades; yet it loses ground. Even among those interested in literature, one senses skepticism as to the possibility of valuable literary history, at least in the traditional sense. On this skepticism F. W. Bateson, himself a literary historian in the best sense, has blown the gaff, speaking openly of a "non-subject par excellence."I Other critics, with an equal air of crisis, have called for abrupt changes of direction: literary history should be a history of forms; literary history should be a history of reception and impact;2 "literary history should . . . be a history of words."3 As for the young, their attitude to the discipline is sometimes one of open hostility or even of insidious neglect. Literature more than a century old seems inaccessible to them; but that doesn't matter, when it is irrelevent.4 Of course, literature of the remote past has always been a minority interest. Moreover, "in growing and enlarging times, arts are commonly drowned in action." It is new, however, for literary history to be branded as a system preserving the social order, a structure subserving bourgeois oppression.5 In the largest form of this tragic misconception, literary history falls in with tradition, under the condemnation of having generated man's current plight. (Though history has also generated the standards by which society is condemned, and must orientate any lasting reform.) More specifically, we may be witnessing a passive and uncomprehending inheritance of a former stance: a reaction, no longer appropriate, against the old, inert, philological sort of literary history.6 I shall not discuss the many social causes of literary history's sad devaluation. The present essay limits itself to pedagogic and theoretical aspects. I mean, the repercussions of the formalist movement upon the foundations of literary history. The triumph of Yale formalism is not to be disputed. Indeed, we still applaud it, even while wishing to moderate the riot of the triumphators' army and to move on to normal life. For W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley meant to direct critical attention to the artifact itself, away from extraneous gossip about genetic circumstances or background. And this purpose was justified, not only by the meandering irrelevance of much previous criticism but also by the fruits of victory, at least when the

Man in Society: A Biosocial View

Abstract: Good sociology should begin with the application of radical scepticism and criticism to one's own society, to one's place in it, and, by extension, to all social behavior, pronounces Van den Berghe in the preface to Man in Society. This volume is designed to arouse in the reader a healthy number of questions about society and the state of man which the author hopes may stimulate the reader to become a critically informed member of his society.

Kant's criticism of metaphysics

Abstract: Space, time and mathematics the necessity of categories the application of categories reason and metaphysics.

Controversy and Conflict in Science: A Case Study — The English Biometric School and Mendel's Laws

Abstract: *For valuable criticism I am indebted to the referees. I wish to acknowledge the hospitality of the Warden and Council of Christ College, University of Tasmania, where this paper was drafted. Two important articles relating to this topic reached me after this paper was completed, and consequently I have not been able to refer to their findings as much as I would have liked. The papers are: B. J. Norton, 'The Biometric Defence of Darwinism', Journal of the History of Biology, 6 (1973), 283-316; and D. A. MacKenzie and S. B. Barnes, 'Historical and Sociological Analyses of Scientific Change: The Case of the Mendelian-Biometrician Controversy in England', Kolner Zeitschrift fur Soziologie und Socialpsychologie (Spring 1975, forthcoming). 1 R. K. Merton, 'Science and Democratic Social Structure', Social Theory and Social Structure (New York, 1968), chapter 18. 2 Ibid., 614.

Oral Tradition in the Criticism of African Literature

Abstract: In recent years African literature has-at last-been receiving the serious treatment it has long deserved, largely as a result of the efforts of the literary critics who have demanded strict attention to texture and structure.1 Although there are still a few old-time missionary critics, such as G. D. Killam and Ernest Emenyonu, who pass off environmental commentaries under the shibboleths of literary criticism, the general thrust appears to be towards more formal textual consideration: the examination of how the content of a work is satisfactorily shaped into a perceivable Gestalt.

Criticism, Alternatives and Tests: A Conceptual Framework for Improving Typography

Abstract: The purpose of legibility research is not to discover universal truths, but to improve the practice of typography and design. Research should be directed to specific decisions in particular, practical situations. This article suggests a practical research style which makes use of the tacit know‐how of typographers and designers. The idea is to preface any testing activities with critical and creative activities. This leads to a three‐part cyclical model: criticism, alternatives and tests. Such a model starts with a practical problem and finishes with a decision. This model is illustrated by a critical analysis of some Open University texts.

Plato's Quarrel with Poetry: Simonides

Abstract: As is well known, in the second book of the Republic Plato conducts a sustained criticism of the content of poetry as employed in the education of the young. Most of the stories, says Socrates, must be discarded. In the stories of the great poets Homer and Hesiod the destructive pattern is evident, and "the pattern will be the same"' in holding for all other poets. These false stories (pseudeis mythous, 377D) are primarily at fault, especially when they "are not beautiful" and when the poet

The Reconstruction of Stage Action from Early Dramatic Texts

Abstract: “A play read affects the mind like a play acted.” Dr. Johnson’s remark has the weight of his good sense behind it. A reader will grasp the essentials of a play as surely as a spectator will: theme, plot, character, mood, will be equally clear to both. Yet unless the reader is experienced in the ways of the theatre, he will hardly be able to reconstruct the full effect which the scene he is reading would make in performance. This is a fact more widely recognized in our own century than in Dr. Johnson’s, and its recognition has produced some excellent criticism of plays, notably that of Harley Granville Barker, whose general and particular insights were matched at every point by his awareness of what could be done, and how it could be done, on a stage — especially the stage of the Elizabethan public theatre. Most of us no longer see that stage precisely as Granville Barker and his contemporaries saw it; most of us, indeed, are resigned to never establishing its ultimate details. But I hope most of us agree that Granville Barker’s approach, conspicuous for imagination united with commonsense, was a valuable influence on Shakespearean criticism and production.

John Dewey and the Immigrants

Abstract: JOHN DEWEY has been the subject of comment and criticism for over three-quarters of a century. (1) Often, especially in recent writing on the history of education, the criticism has been divided between those who, to use Richard LaBreque's colorful language, see Dewey as the "good guy" and those who see him as the "bad guy." (2) Among the latter, sometimes collectively called "revisionists," are Clarence Karier, Walter Feinberg, and Colin Greer. Charles Tesconi and Van Cleve Morris have recently co-authored a book emphasizing similar themes. (3) Their attacks on Dewey and other liberals have centered around the rather vaguely defined issue of social control. (4) As Michael Katz says in his discussion of twentieth century school reform in Class, Bureaucracy and Schools, "Nonetheless, there is a darker side to the social thought of even the best progressives, notably Dewey and Jane Addams,... Briefly, the emphasis on community in Jane Addams and the definitions of democracy and experience in Dewey provide particularly subtle and sophisticated instances the widespread attempt in their time to foster modes of social control appropriate to a complex urban environment." (5) Part of the evidence for the revisionists' stand on the social control issue comes from their perception of Dewey's position on the treatment of immigrants. For example, while discussing Dewey's views about one immigrant group, the Philadelphia Polish community, Karier says, "Dewey viewed ethnic and religious differences as a threat to the survival of society, to be overcome through assimilation. Dewey, as well as other liberal reformers, was committed to flexible, experimentally managed, orderly social change that included a high degree of manipulation." (6) Greer generalizes this position to include all immigrants. (7) Morris and Tesconi continue the theme, although using different language, saying that Dewey's suggestion for the

Paradise lost : an authoritative text, backgrounds and sources, criticism

Abstract: This is the second edition of the "Norton Critical Edition" of Milton's "Paradise Lost". It represents an extensive revision of the first edition. The text of the poem remains that of Milton's 1674 edition, retaining the original punctuation but with modernized spelling and italics. Material for the study of contemporary religious and political issues is now included, as well as selections from his earlier poetry and prose.

William Blake : The Critical Heritage

Abstract: The Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling students and researchers to read for themselves, for example, comments on early performances of Shakespeare's plays, or reactions to the first publication of Jane Austen's novels. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to journalism and contemporary opinion, and little published documentary material such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included, in order to demonstrate the fluctuations in an author's reputation. Each volume contains an introduction to the writer's published works, a selected bibliography, and an index of works, authors and subjects. The Collected Critical Heritage set will be available as a set of 68 volumes and the series will also be available in mini sets selected by period (in slipcase boxes) and as individual volumes.

Where Is Literature

Abstract: ALL CRITICISM OF LITERATURE originates in our personal experiences of individual works, and all criticism is a transformation of those experiences. This seems obvious, yet, implicitly or explicitly, it is the most frequently denied or avoided aspect of the professional study of literature. Indeed, the current crop of critical selfexaminations of literary study yields a rich display of professional avoidance techniques. Professional self-justification seems to have become a pursuit of impersonal contexts or, in one jargon, "pretexts" for the interpretation of the texts that matter to individual critics. The texts and contexts vary but the pursuit remains constant: justification of intellectual activity that interprets literature justifies literature as an object, declares it an autonomous body of works to be studied. This endeavor seems curiously paradoxical, like pulling oneself by one's own bootstraps. Actually, the trick involved is simple, since the category "literature" is never questioned, it is assumed to exist in itself and only the context or "pretext" for its interpretation is changed. In the professional recruitment of new contexts no extraliterary categories escape being drafted. Marxist, phenomenological, structuralist and psychoanalytic concepts all find themselves serving one or another methodology, and it is not uncommon (at least in Buffalo) to find students resisting not only a particular critical context but the very endeavor in which their teachers seem so energetically engaged. They seem to suffer a poverty of riches, an array of choices so extensive and sophisticated that in the act of choosing more seems lost than gained, as if the choice of a critical methodology were equivalent to being absorbed and delimited by it. Such absorption seems ambivalently desired, and it is not uncommon (for me) to find students, during doctoral exams, trying somewhat desperately to speak three critical languages at once in a futile attempt to compromise with the apparent demands of professional identities. I often find myself imagining these students in analogy with those "schizophrenics" whose identities represent the painfully unresolved contradictions disavowed by the members of their families.' Such an extreme analogy fits my own mental style, but I think it also

On Tools and Language: Habermas on Work and Interaction

Abstract: The very title of Habermas' most recent work in English "Toward a Reconstruction of Historical Materialism," should not be surprising. For the reconstitution and revitalization of Marxist theory in the context of altered socio-historical conditions is predicated by the very core of that theory itself. With its dialectic of subject and object, Marxism is subject to alterations in the form and content of both its theory and practice. Theory attempts to understand not only its object, but also its own role as a moment in the dialectical movement and transcendence of that object. This was Marx's own self-understanding in remarking that the communists "do not anticipate the world dogmatically," but rather wish to find the new world through criticism of the old."' At the same time, Marxism is no mere theory of historical relativism. Understanding itself as grounded within a particular sociohistorical formation, it attempts to indicate the real possibility of practically transcending the "bad" present and the social forces which might carry out that transcendence towards human liberation: "Historical materialism aims

The 'communalistic' African and the 'individualistic' Westerner: some comments on misleading generalizations in Western criticism of Soyinka and Achebe

Abstract: Many African intellectuals-politicians, writers and other professionals -have been concerned with establishing the value of precolonial African life, in the face of hundreds of years of Western condescension towards and misunderstanding of "primitive" peoples. This essay concerns the use made of the terms of these African intellectuals in Western discussion of modern African literature, a use that sometimes leads the literary critic and the social scientist alike, away from, rather than into the actual nature of the works he is examining. This attempt to establish a "positive" African identity, indeed to stress the unique values of African societies, has been intimately involved with the struggle for independence, and with nation-building. It has been characterized by the use of a series of contrasts between African and Western cultures, which are, by now, very familiar to the reader of modern African fiction and nonfiction, of Western discussion of African literature, and, finally, of African commentary, both on African literature itself and on Western criticism of it. Perhaps the most familiar of these contrasts is that between "communal" African society and "individualistic" Western society, which is often linked to the contrast between the "traditional" and the "modern," the "rural" and the "urban," and often closely associated with a distinction between a mystical attitude toward nature that does not separate the individual from the cosmos, and an empirical or rational attitude toward nature. The contrast between "communal" African society and "individualistic" Western society has become a touchstone for Western criticism of African literature; it has been put into service in the explanation of apparent differences between Western literature-in particular, the nineteenth and twentieth century novel -and African fiction, which, for example, less frequently involves conventions of extensive introspection. The intellectual history of these familiar contrasts might plausibly begin with the distinction in nineteenth century German social theory between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, originally found in T6nnies, buut also present in Max Weber, and anticipated in Marx, who is certainly an influential figure in modern African thought. On the one hand, there are