Tania Oldenhage
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195150520
- eISBN:
- 9780199834549
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515052X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Over the centuries, New Testament texts have often been read in ways that reflect and encourage anti‐Judaism. Since the Holocaust, Christian scholars have increasingly recognized this inheritance. ...
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Over the centuries, New Testament texts have often been read in ways that reflect and encourage anti‐Judaism. Since the Holocaust, Christian scholars have increasingly recognized this inheritance. New Testament scholars have not directly confronted the horror of Nazi crimes, Odlenhage argues, but their work has nonetheless been deeply affected by the events of the Holocaust. By placing twentieth‐century biblical scholarship within its specific historical and cultural contexts, she is able to trace the process by which the Holocaust gradually moved into the collective consciousness of New Testament scholars, both in Germany and in the U.S.. Her focus is on the interpretation of the parables of Jesus by scholars, including Joachim Jeremias, Wolfgang Harnisch, Paul Ricoeur and John Dominic Crossan. In conclusion, Oldenhage offers her own reading of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, demonstrating how the turn from historical criticism to literary theory opens up the text to interpretation in light of the Holocaust. Thereby, she seeks to fashion a biblical hermeneutics that consciously works with memories of the Holocaust. If the parables are to be meaningful in our time, Oldenhage contends, we must take account of the troubling resonance between these ancient Christian stories and the atrocities of Auschwitz.Less
Over the centuries, New Testament texts have often been read in ways that reflect and encourage anti‐Judaism. Since the Holocaust, Christian scholars have increasingly recognized this inheritance. New Testament scholars have not directly confronted the horror of Nazi crimes, Odlenhage argues, but their work has nonetheless been deeply affected by the events of the Holocaust. By placing twentieth‐century biblical scholarship within its specific historical and cultural contexts, she is able to trace the process by which the Holocaust gradually moved into the collective consciousness of New Testament scholars, both in Germany and in the U.S.. Her focus is on the interpretation of the parables of Jesus by scholars, including Joachim Jeremias, Wolfgang Harnisch, Paul Ricoeur and John Dominic Crossan. In conclusion, Oldenhage offers her own reading of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, demonstrating how the turn from historical criticism to literary theory opens up the text to interpretation in light of the Holocaust. Thereby, she seeks to fashion a biblical hermeneutics that consciously works with memories of the Holocaust. If the parables are to be meaningful in our time, Oldenhage contends, we must take account of the troubling resonance between these ancient Christian stories and the atrocities of Auschwitz.
Dana Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195137699
- eISBN:
- 9780199787937
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195137699.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Ecocriticism in its early years was more appreciative than truly critical. It was hostile to literary theory, which it found overly skeptical and needlessly abstruse, and against which it urged a ...
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Ecocriticism in its early years was more appreciative than truly critical. It was hostile to literary theory, which it found overly skeptical and needlessly abstruse, and against which it urged a revival of literary realism. Ecocritics argued for the realism of verbal representation of the natural world, and called for nature writing (both poetry and prose) to be taken seriously as an art form, one with its own tradition of greatness, especially in the United States. Ecocritics focused their attention on the typical features of American nature writing, such as its celebration of subjectivity, and especially of individual sensory experience or, more narrowly, of perception; its attempts to merge culture with nature; and, paradoxically, the conviction of many of its authors (and readers) that culture and nature are separated by a gulf that poses a grave ontological and epistemological obstacle, one cutting human beings off from the natural world. Ironically, in their attempts to make sense of these features of American nature writing while avoiding the traps set by contemporary academic culture, ecocritics inevitably had to rely on terms and concepts that were either implicitly or explicitly theoretical, which some of them were trying very hard to avoid having to do. The bulk of this chapter (which closes with a reading of Petersons field guide to birds, ostensibly a realist text) is devoted to a critique of ecocritical monographs by Joseph Meeker, John Elder, and Lawrence Buell, monographs in which notions borrowed from scientific and literary theory including notions of adÈquation, evolution, ecosystem ecology, the pastoral, poetics, epiphany, prophetic speech, landscape, place, and mimesis are used, generally unsuccessfully, to shore up some flawed though well-intentioned arguments on behalf of environmental literature.Less
Ecocriticism in its early years was more appreciative than truly critical. It was hostile to literary theory, which it found overly skeptical and needlessly abstruse, and against which it urged a revival of literary realism. Ecocritics argued for the realism of verbal representation of the natural world, and called for nature writing (both poetry and prose) to be taken seriously as an art form, one with its own tradition of greatness, especially in the United States. Ecocritics focused their attention on the typical features of American nature writing, such as its celebration of subjectivity, and especially of individual sensory experience or, more narrowly, of perception; its attempts to merge culture with nature; and, paradoxically, the conviction of many of its authors (and readers) that culture and nature are separated by a gulf that poses a grave ontological and epistemological obstacle, one cutting human beings off from the natural world. Ironically, in their attempts to make sense of these features of American nature writing while avoiding the traps set by contemporary academic culture, ecocritics inevitably had to rely on terms and concepts that were either implicitly or explicitly theoretical, which some of them were trying very hard to avoid having to do. The bulk of this chapter (which closes with a reading of Petersons field guide to birds, ostensibly a realist text) is devoted to a critique of ecocritical monographs by Joseph Meeker, John Elder, and Lawrence Buell, monographs in which notions borrowed from scientific and literary theory including notions of adÈquation, evolution, ecosystem ecology, the pastoral, poetics, epiphany, prophetic speech, landscape, place, and mimesis are used, generally unsuccessfully, to shore up some flawed though well-intentioned arguments on behalf of environmental literature.
Kent Greenawalt
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199756131
- eISBN:
- 9780199855292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199756131.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter focuses on literary interpretation, in the sense of an account of what a work of literature means; and interpretation involved in performance, whether of musical or dramatic works. Both ...
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This chapter focuses on literary interpretation, in the sense of an account of what a work of literature means; and interpretation involved in performance, whether of musical or dramatic works. Both forms of interpretation involve efforts to attribute meaning and significance to underlying texts, but performers, unlike critics, actually replicate the texts for audiences. Within the law, judges may seem to resemble performers more than critics, although their applications of texts to concrete circumstances are not repetitions of the words of the texts but decisions about what consequences they entail. Legal scholars often aim at recommendations about desirable interpretations, but not all legal scholarship takes that form. Some scholarly explanations and critiques do not focus on how judges might best interpret legal texts.Less
This chapter focuses on literary interpretation, in the sense of an account of what a work of literature means; and interpretation involved in performance, whether of musical or dramatic works. Both forms of interpretation involve efforts to attribute meaning and significance to underlying texts, but performers, unlike critics, actually replicate the texts for audiences. Within the law, judges may seem to resemble performers more than critics, although their applications of texts to concrete circumstances are not repetitions of the words of the texts but decisions about what consequences they entail. Legal scholars often aim at recommendations about desirable interpretations, but not all legal scholarship takes that form. Some scholarly explanations and critiques do not focus on how judges might best interpret legal texts.
Howard Felperin
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128960
- eISBN:
- 9780191671746
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The past two decades have seen swift and radical change in the way literature is perceived and taught in this country and abroad, as numerous new schools of theory have blossomed, particularly at ...
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The past two decades have seen swift and radical change in the way literature is perceived and taught in this country and abroad, as numerous new schools of theory have blossomed, particularly at Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Cambridge. Intended as an introduction to these new theories, the book offers a balanced and lively overview that steers clear of technicalities as it explains, explores, and occasionally takes issue with the large movements that have followed the so-called ‘practical’ criticism of F. R. Leavis and others. It focuses on the major schools and figures of structuralism, Marxism, and deconstruction, giving a focus on the ideological and methodological issues involved.Less
The past two decades have seen swift and radical change in the way literature is perceived and taught in this country and abroad, as numerous new schools of theory have blossomed, particularly at Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Cambridge. Intended as an introduction to these new theories, the book offers a balanced and lively overview that steers clear of technicalities as it explains, explores, and occasionally takes issue with the large movements that have followed the so-called ‘practical’ criticism of F. R. Leavis and others. It focuses on the major schools and figures of structuralism, Marxism, and deconstruction, giving a focus on the ideological and methodological issues involved.
Chris Stamatakis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644407
- eISBN:
- 9780191738821
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644407.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Poetry
This study reappraises Sir Thomas Wyatt (c.1504-1542) as a poetic innovator from the literary avant-garde of early Tudor England. It discusses Wyatt’s self-conscious reflections on the writing ...
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This study reappraises Sir Thomas Wyatt (c.1504-1542) as a poetic innovator from the literary avant-garde of early Tudor England. It discusses Wyatt’s self-conscious reflections on the writing process, and his awareness of how words are turned in new directions over the course of a text’s production, transmission and reception. Where previous studies have aligned Wyatt’s poetry with his courtly biography, this book examines the reading practices of his Tudor audiences and editors, and considers the types of textuality shown by the manuscript collections of his verse. By setting Wyatt’s writings in the context of sixteenth-century theories of language and literary practice, and by drawing on early Tudor educational treatises, rhetorical handbooks, and manuals of courtly behaviour, this monograph examines the rhetoric of rewriting that colours Wyatt’s texts. Repeatedly, his writings invite readers to ‘turn’ or perform the word—to draw out something that lies inert within it. These rescriptive habits often serve to sustain an intimate dialogue between writers and readers. Special attention is paid to the materiality of Wyatt’s texts: the margins around and the interlinear spaces within his poems are regularly filled with new text, supplied by Wyatt himself or by his copyists, editors and readers. Chapters are devoted to the types of rewriting found in each of Wyatt’s main genres: Plutarchian essays; forensic apologias; psalm paraphrases; letters and verse epistles, and lyrics or ‘balets’. Two appendices offer further detail about patterns of manuscript transmission. Throughout, this study argues that reading often shaded into writing (and rewriting) in the early sixteenth century, and that acts of apparent copying often transformed texts inventively.Less
This study reappraises Sir Thomas Wyatt (c.1504-1542) as a poetic innovator from the literary avant-garde of early Tudor England. It discusses Wyatt’s self-conscious reflections on the writing process, and his awareness of how words are turned in new directions over the course of a text’s production, transmission and reception. Where previous studies have aligned Wyatt’s poetry with his courtly biography, this book examines the reading practices of his Tudor audiences and editors, and considers the types of textuality shown by the manuscript collections of his verse. By setting Wyatt’s writings in the context of sixteenth-century theories of language and literary practice, and by drawing on early Tudor educational treatises, rhetorical handbooks, and manuals of courtly behaviour, this monograph examines the rhetoric of rewriting that colours Wyatt’s texts. Repeatedly, his writings invite readers to ‘turn’ or perform the word—to draw out something that lies inert within it. These rescriptive habits often serve to sustain an intimate dialogue between writers and readers. Special attention is paid to the materiality of Wyatt’s texts: the margins around and the interlinear spaces within his poems are regularly filled with new text, supplied by Wyatt himself or by his copyists, editors and readers. Chapters are devoted to the types of rewriting found in each of Wyatt’s main genres: Plutarchian essays; forensic apologias; psalm paraphrases; letters and verse epistles, and lyrics or ‘balets’. Two appendices offer further detail about patterns of manuscript transmission. Throughout, this study argues that reading often shaded into writing (and rewriting) in the early sixteenth century, and that acts of apparent copying often transformed texts inventively.
Verena M. Lepper and Roland Enmarch
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This introductory chapter discusses briefly the history of the study of Egyptian literature, highlighting how broader developments in the theory of literature have come to be applied within ...
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This introductory chapter discusses briefly the history of the study of Egyptian literature, highlighting how broader developments in the theory of literature have come to be applied within Egyptology, and outlining the significant interpretative issues that still remain. This is particularly acute when studying a civilisation such as Ancient Egypt, with an only fragmentarily preserved literate culture, and no continuous tradition of reception to condition modern engagement with the ancient texts. The chapter reviews the approaches taken by contributors to the volume, and evaluates how they relate to recent developments in the application of theoretically informed approaches to Egyptian texts. The range of topics covered demonstrates the vitality and diversity of current Egyptological engagement with Ancient Egyptian texts.Less
This introductory chapter discusses briefly the history of the study of Egyptian literature, highlighting how broader developments in the theory of literature have come to be applied within Egyptology, and outlining the significant interpretative issues that still remain. This is particularly acute when studying a civilisation such as Ancient Egypt, with an only fragmentarily preserved literate culture, and no continuous tradition of reception to condition modern engagement with the ancient texts. The chapter reviews the approaches taken by contributors to the volume, and evaluates how they relate to recent developments in the application of theoretically informed approaches to Egyptian texts. The range of topics covered demonstrates the vitality and diversity of current Egyptological engagement with Ancient Egyptian texts.
Ludwig D. Morenz
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter discusses aspects of Egyptian ‘fine literature’ (belles-lettres), and combines general literary and cultural-scientific theoretical considerations with specific case studies from both ...
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This chapter discusses aspects of Egyptian ‘fine literature’ (belles-lettres), and combines general literary and cultural-scientific theoretical considerations with specific case studies from both Middle Egyptian and Late Egyptian literature. It addresses questions of form and function, producers and recipients, as well as discussing the search for empirical readers. Also discussed are the question of original manuscripts and the potential significance of writing errors.Less
This chapter discusses aspects of Egyptian ‘fine literature’ (belles-lettres), and combines general literary and cultural-scientific theoretical considerations with specific case studies from both Middle Egyptian and Late Egyptian literature. It addresses questions of form and function, producers and recipients, as well as discussing the search for empirical readers. Also discussed are the question of original manuscripts and the potential significance of writing errors.
Howard Felperin
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128960
- eISBN:
- 9780191671746
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128960.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Theory will turn out to be only another practice, from which there can be no escape or transcendence. Ironically, it was F. R. Leavis himself who recognized this back in the 1930s when he refused, ...
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Theory will turn out to be only another practice, from which there can be no escape or transcendence. Ironically, it was F. R. Leavis himself who recognized this back in the 1930s when he refused, under challenge by Rene Wellek, to theorize his own practice. He was right to do so, not for his mock-humble pretext that he had better leave it to philosophers to do what he, as a mere practitioner, could not do. He was right, because the philosophers cannot do it either. For since Leavis's time, the philosophers themselves, so long preoccupied with ‘ordinary’ language and establishing a first philosophy of it, have grown more humble. That first- or ground-philosophy, so long sought as a kind of master-key to all understanding, has come increasingly to be regarded as an illusion, an institutional mirage or myth, and the work done toward it as more ‘literature’. This chapter discusses literary theory and literary criticism, the concept of Leavisism, the transition from philology to theory, the politics of interpretation, deconstruction, and structuralism and poststructuralism.Less
Theory will turn out to be only another practice, from which there can be no escape or transcendence. Ironically, it was F. R. Leavis himself who recognized this back in the 1930s when he refused, under challenge by Rene Wellek, to theorize his own practice. He was right to do so, not for his mock-humble pretext that he had better leave it to philosophers to do what he, as a mere practitioner, could not do. He was right, because the philosophers cannot do it either. For since Leavis's time, the philosophers themselves, so long preoccupied with ‘ordinary’ language and establishing a first philosophy of it, have grown more humble. That first- or ground-philosophy, so long sought as a kind of master-key to all understanding, has come increasingly to be regarded as an illusion, an institutional mirage or myth, and the work done toward it as more ‘literature’. This chapter discusses literary theory and literary criticism, the concept of Leavisism, the transition from philology to theory, the politics of interpretation, deconstruction, and structuralism and poststructuralism.
Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198236818
- eISBN:
- 9780191679377
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198236818.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Language
This chapter proposes a coherent and strong formulation of the Propositional Theory of Literary Truth. A Propositional Theory of Literary Truth could be formulated as follows: the literary work ...
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This chapter proposes a coherent and strong formulation of the Propositional Theory of Literary Truth. A Propositional Theory of Literary Truth could be formulated as follows: the literary work contains or implies general thematic statements about the world which the reader as part of an appreciation of the work has to assess as true or false. The theory presents two claims. First, a literary work implies propositions which can be construed as general propositions about the world. Second, these propositions are to be construed as involved in true or false claims about the world.Less
This chapter proposes a coherent and strong formulation of the Propositional Theory of Literary Truth. A Propositional Theory of Literary Truth could be formulated as follows: the literary work contains or implies general thematic statements about the world which the reader as part of an appreciation of the work has to assess as true or false. The theory presents two claims. First, a literary work implies propositions which can be construed as general propositions about the world. Second, these propositions are to be construed as involved in true or false claims about the world.
Roland Enmarch and Verena M. Lepper (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book reviews the numerous developments in the theoretical framework of interpretation that have taken place over recent years. The application of more theoretically informed approaches to the ...
More
This book reviews the numerous developments in the theoretical framework of interpretation that have taken place over recent years. The application of more theoretically informed approaches to the ancient literary corpus, and a more detailed analysis of context, form, and reception, have fundamentally challenged the interpretative paradigms that formerly held sway. No consensus on interpretative stance has yet emerged, and in this volume many of the foremost researchers in the field examine the overall state of work on the subject. The chapters in the present volume are intended to contribute to this development of different approaches in their application to real Egyptian texts. No single overarching theoretical framework underlies these contributions; instead they represent a multiplicity of perspectives. The range of chapters includes textual criticism; literary criticism; the social role of literature; reception theory; and the treatment of newly discovered literary texts. All contributions centre on the problems and potentials of studying Egyptian literature in a theoretically informed manner. Although major difficulties remain in interpreting a literature preserved only fragmentarily, this volume demonstrates the ongoing vitality of current Egyptological approaches to this problem. This volume also incorporates a broader cross-cultural and comparative element, providing overviews of connections and discontinuities with biblical, Classical, and Mesopotamian literatures, in order to address the comparative contexts of Ancient Egyptian literature.Less
This book reviews the numerous developments in the theoretical framework of interpretation that have taken place over recent years. The application of more theoretically informed approaches to the ancient literary corpus, and a more detailed analysis of context, form, and reception, have fundamentally challenged the interpretative paradigms that formerly held sway. No consensus on interpretative stance has yet emerged, and in this volume many of the foremost researchers in the field examine the overall state of work on the subject. The chapters in the present volume are intended to contribute to this development of different approaches in their application to real Egyptian texts. No single overarching theoretical framework underlies these contributions; instead they represent a multiplicity of perspectives. The range of chapters includes textual criticism; literary criticism; the social role of literature; reception theory; and the treatment of newly discovered literary texts. All contributions centre on the problems and potentials of studying Egyptian literature in a theoretically informed manner. Although major difficulties remain in interpreting a literature preserved only fragmentarily, this volume demonstrates the ongoing vitality of current Egyptological approaches to this problem. This volume also incorporates a broader cross-cultural and comparative element, providing overviews of connections and discontinuities with biblical, Classical, and Mesopotamian literatures, in order to address the comparative contexts of Ancient Egyptian literature.
Christoph G. Leidl
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199240050
- eISBN:
- 9780191716850
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199240050.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores some major issues in developing a model for the study of metaphor as a literary category. Purely structural categorization should be supplemented with sensitivity to context in ...
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This chapter explores some major issues in developing a model for the study of metaphor as a literary category. Purely structural categorization should be supplemented with sensitivity to context in the operation of metaphor. Central to the purpose of metaphor are the judgements they imply, and their use to create vocabulary for new fields of thought thus throws useful light on how those fields are viewed. Ancient personifications of rhetoric as a woman are used as a case study.Less
This chapter explores some major issues in developing a model for the study of metaphor as a literary category. Purely structural categorization should be supplemented with sensitivity to context in the operation of metaphor. Central to the purpose of metaphor are the judgements they imply, and their use to create vocabulary for new fields of thought thus throws useful light on how those fields are viewed. Ancient personifications of rhetoric as a woman are used as a case study.
Dana Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195137699
- eISBN:
- 9780199787937
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195137699.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
First-generation ecocriticism often originated in an epiphany, which tended to occur when desk-bound professors of literature suddenly rediscovered the natural world and found it not only refreshing, ...
More
First-generation ecocriticism often originated in an epiphany, which tended to occur when desk-bound professors of literature suddenly rediscovered the natural world and found it not only refreshing, but also morally superior to, and more real than, texts and ideas. Ironically, this epiphany only led many of those who experienced it to feel a renewed concern with verbal representation, which soon emerged as a central issue in ecocriticism as many ecocritics embraced some version of literary realism or another, and as they rejected outright the skeptical insights about mimesis offered by contemporary literary theory and the philosophical tradition. This was a mistake, since figuration and not representation is essential to literature, especially to the pastoral, which some ecocritics argued ought to be revived in order to counter the corrosive influence of postmodernism. Yet because environments are not spaces (or landscapes) but hyperspaces (which contain innumerable niches or “multidimensional hypervolumes”), the world described by ecological science is, at least in this one aspect, more like the vertiginous world of hyperreality described by postmodernism than first-generation ecocritics realized. An eclectic pragmatism, one taking its cues not only from William James and other philosophers but also from cultural critics like Umberto Eco and Bruno Latour, offers a way to make use of the ideas of seemingly opposed parties in the debate over “the truth of ecology” and the fate of “nature-culture”, and to do so without resorting to long-discredited ideas about the relation of words to the world.Less
First-generation ecocriticism often originated in an epiphany, which tended to occur when desk-bound professors of literature suddenly rediscovered the natural world and found it not only refreshing, but also morally superior to, and more real than, texts and ideas. Ironically, this epiphany only led many of those who experienced it to feel a renewed concern with verbal representation, which soon emerged as a central issue in ecocriticism as many ecocritics embraced some version of literary realism or another, and as they rejected outright the skeptical insights about mimesis offered by contemporary literary theory and the philosophical tradition. This was a mistake, since figuration and not representation is essential to literature, especially to the pastoral, which some ecocritics argued ought to be revived in order to counter the corrosive influence of postmodernism. Yet because environments are not spaces (or landscapes) but hyperspaces (which contain innumerable niches or “multidimensional hypervolumes”), the world described by ecological science is, at least in this one aspect, more like the vertiginous world of hyperreality described by postmodernism than first-generation ecocritics realized. An eclectic pragmatism, one taking its cues not only from William James and other philosophers but also from cultural critics like Umberto Eco and Bruno Latour, offers a way to make use of the ideas of seemingly opposed parties in the debate over “the truth of ecology” and the fate of “nature-culture”, and to do so without resorting to long-discredited ideas about the relation of words to the world.
Nicholas Dames
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199208968
- eISBN:
- 9780191695759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208968.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to demonstrate that there existed for a period of time in the nineteenth century a literary theory called ‘the physiology of ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to demonstrate that there existed for a period of time in the nineteenth century a literary theory called ‘the physiology of the novel’. It traces: its most important practitioners; its central texts and influences; its methodological peculiarities tendencies, and blind spots; its critical protocols; and its thoroughly reciprocal impact upon the novels produced during its most influential period. The chapter then discusses some axioms for physiological novel theory and the social norms of cognition. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to demonstrate that there existed for a period of time in the nineteenth century a literary theory called ‘the physiology of the novel’. It traces: its most important practitioners; its central texts and influences; its methodological peculiarities tendencies, and blind spots; its critical protocols; and its thoroughly reciprocal impact upon the novels produced during its most influential period. The chapter then discusses some axioms for physiological novel theory and the social norms of cognition. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Chris Stamatakis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644407
- eISBN:
- 9780191738821
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644407.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Poetry
This chapter considers how Wyatt’s poetry was received and renewed. John Leland and Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey) commemorate Wyatt’s literary activities by reweaving echoes from his writing in their ...
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This chapter considers how Wyatt’s poetry was received and renewed. John Leland and Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey) commemorate Wyatt’s literary activities by reweaving echoes from his writing in their laments. These acts of verbal reuse and textual renewal are located in a broader paradigm, which draws upon theories of literary practice in the early sixteenth century. The chapter discusses the impact of Erasmian hermeneutics, Reformation theology, pedagogic methods, and humanist strategies of translation on the literary practice and ‘grammar’ which underwrite Wyatt’s texts. Wyatt’s writing—especially his two prose apologias—can be understood against the backdrop of a shift from a referential to a relational semiotics; an Erasmian appeal to usage; invitations for readers to construct meaning by collating texts; a literary theory predicated on the unfolding of infolded meaning; and the practice of readerly rewriting by which the introduction of new text performs or reifies extant wordsLess
This chapter considers how Wyatt’s poetry was received and renewed. John Leland and Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey) commemorate Wyatt’s literary activities by reweaving echoes from his writing in their laments. These acts of verbal reuse and textual renewal are located in a broader paradigm, which draws upon theories of literary practice in the early sixteenth century. The chapter discusses the impact of Erasmian hermeneutics, Reformation theology, pedagogic methods, and humanist strategies of translation on the literary practice and ‘grammar’ which underwrite Wyatt’s texts. Wyatt’s writing—especially his two prose apologias—can be understood against the backdrop of a shift from a referential to a relational semiotics; an Erasmian appeal to usage; invitations for readers to construct meaning by collating texts; a literary theory predicated on the unfolding of infolded meaning; and the practice of readerly rewriting by which the introduction of new text performs or reifies extant words
John Barton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Readers of ancient texts often assume that they are looking for the meaning intended by the author. Trends in modern literary theory, from the ‘New Criticism’ to structuralism and postmodern ...
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Readers of ancient texts often assume that they are looking for the meaning intended by the author. Trends in modern literary theory, from the ‘New Criticism’ to structuralism and postmodern deconstruction, have called this into question. In its place readers look either for meanings supposedly inherent to the text regardless of the author's intention, or for meanings attributable to the text through creative ‘readings’, without any implication that the text has a ‘real’ meaning. Theorising of this kind has been more typical of the study of modern literature than of ancient texts, but the fact that so much ancient writing is anonymous or pseudonymous might make it an even more suitable case for a literary-theoretical treatment. However, such reading can produce meanings that are completely arbitrary. The work of Umberto Eco can provide a middle way between a textual determinism and total arbitrariness, through his concept of the intentio operis.Less
Readers of ancient texts often assume that they are looking for the meaning intended by the author. Trends in modern literary theory, from the ‘New Criticism’ to structuralism and postmodern deconstruction, have called this into question. In its place readers look either for meanings supposedly inherent to the text regardless of the author's intention, or for meanings attributable to the text through creative ‘readings’, without any implication that the text has a ‘real’ meaning. Theorising of this kind has been more typical of the study of modern literature than of ancient texts, but the fact that so much ancient writing is anonymous or pseudonymous might make it an even more suitable case for a literary-theoretical treatment. However, such reading can produce meanings that are completely arbitrary. The work of Umberto Eco can provide a middle way between a textual determinism and total arbitrariness, through his concept of the intentio operis.
Jane Aaron
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128908
- eISBN:
- 9780191671739
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128908.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
In 1796, when Mary Lamb killed her mother in a sudden attack of violent frenzy, her brother Charles pledged himself to be responsible for her care, thus sparing her from threatened incarceration in ...
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In 1796, when Mary Lamb killed her mother in a sudden attack of violent frenzy, her brother Charles pledged himself to be responsible for her care, thus sparing her from threatened incarceration in Bedlam. For the next thirty-odd years they lived, and wrote, together. Informed by feminist and psychoanalytic literary theory, this book provides an entirely new perspective on the lives and writings of Charles and Mary Lamb. It argues that the Lambs' ideological inheritance as the children of servants, their work experience as clerk and needlewoman respectively, and the role that madness and matricide played in both their lives, resulted in writings which were at variance with the spirit of their age. In particular, the intensity of their sibling bond is seen, in Charles Lamb's case, as resulting in texts stylistically and thematically opposed to the masculinist stance currently considered characteristic of Romantic writers.Less
In 1796, when Mary Lamb killed her mother in a sudden attack of violent frenzy, her brother Charles pledged himself to be responsible for her care, thus sparing her from threatened incarceration in Bedlam. For the next thirty-odd years they lived, and wrote, together. Informed by feminist and psychoanalytic literary theory, this book provides an entirely new perspective on the lives and writings of Charles and Mary Lamb. It argues that the Lambs' ideological inheritance as the children of servants, their work experience as clerk and needlewoman respectively, and the role that madness and matricide played in both their lives, resulted in writings which were at variance with the spirit of their age. In particular, the intensity of their sibling bond is seen, in Charles Lamb's case, as resulting in texts stylistically and thematically opposed to the masculinist stance currently considered characteristic of Romantic writers.
G. R. Boys-Stones (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199240050
- eISBN:
- 9780191716850
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199240050.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
According to the theoretical accounts which survive in the rhetorical handbooks of antiquity, allegory is extended metaphor, or an extended series of metaphors; and both allegory and metaphor are ...
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According to the theoretical accounts which survive in the rhetorical handbooks of antiquity, allegory is extended metaphor, or an extended series of metaphors; and both allegory and metaphor are linguistic ‘tropes’: their purpose is essentially ornamental. The distance posited here between meaning on the one hand and the form of its expression on the other has come under decisive attack in the work of 20th century theorists, who have argued for the central role of metaphor in the construction of meaning. But how far in fact do the rhetorical handbooks represent the scope and subtlety of ancient thought on the matter? The papers presented here address this question from a variety of theoretical perspectives; they examine the origin and meaning of the term ‘metaphor’, set ancient against modern theories of language, and theory against practice. The inclusion of papers devoted to allegory in the writing and exegesis of antiquity provides, in the first place, another way of testing the adequacy of ancient rhetorical theory; but it also extends the debate into areas of the literary life of antiquity which have been unjustly sidelined or neglected.Less
According to the theoretical accounts which survive in the rhetorical handbooks of antiquity, allegory is extended metaphor, or an extended series of metaphors; and both allegory and metaphor are linguistic ‘tropes’: their purpose is essentially ornamental. The distance posited here between meaning on the one hand and the form of its expression on the other has come under decisive attack in the work of 20th century theorists, who have argued for the central role of metaphor in the construction of meaning. But how far in fact do the rhetorical handbooks represent the scope and subtlety of ancient thought on the matter? The papers presented here address this question from a variety of theoretical perspectives; they examine the origin and meaning of the term ‘metaphor’, set ancient against modern theories of language, and theory against practice. The inclusion of papers devoted to allegory in the writing and exegesis of antiquity provides, in the first place, another way of testing the adequacy of ancient rhetorical theory; but it also extends the debate into areas of the literary life of antiquity which have been unjustly sidelined or neglected.
Howard Felperin
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128960
- eISBN:
- 9780191671746
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128960.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In the unlikely event that some Nobel Prize committee of the future decides to honour the discoverers of so anti-humanistic a concept as deconstruction, it will be faced with more than the usual ...
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In the unlikely event that some Nobel Prize committee of the future decides to honour the discoverers of so anti-humanistic a concept as deconstruction, it will be faced with more than the usual difficulties in determining where to bestow the award. The search for the founder or originator of the discourse of deconstruction, flagrantly post-modernist and avant-garde as it is, would discover, upon examination of its major texts, a number of earlier candidates already nominated as worthy of the honour. The short-list of nominees might well have to stretch back behind the deconstructors of the present to include those relatively recent inquisitors of language who underwrite their work. While Nobel Prizes are often awarded belatedly or retrospectively, such an infinite regress of likely candidates for the dubious title of ‘founding father of deconstruction’ would make something of a mockery or a nonsense of the committee's august deliberations. This chapter discusses literary theory and literary criticism, structuralism, Marxism, and the nature of language and textuality in relation to the Nobel Prize.Less
In the unlikely event that some Nobel Prize committee of the future decides to honour the discoverers of so anti-humanistic a concept as deconstruction, it will be faced with more than the usual difficulties in determining where to bestow the award. The search for the founder or originator of the discourse of deconstruction, flagrantly post-modernist and avant-garde as it is, would discover, upon examination of its major texts, a number of earlier candidates already nominated as worthy of the honour. The short-list of nominees might well have to stretch back behind the deconstructors of the present to include those relatively recent inquisitors of language who underwrite their work. While Nobel Prizes are often awarded belatedly or retrospectively, such an infinite regress of likely candidates for the dubious title of ‘founding father of deconstruction’ would make something of a mockery or a nonsense of the committee's august deliberations. This chapter discusses literary theory and literary criticism, structuralism, Marxism, and the nature of language and textuality in relation to the Nobel Prize.
Howard Felperin
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128960
- eISBN:
- 9780191671746
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128960.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The foregoing chapter attempts to identify a major change in the cultural condition of art, already in process at the turn of the 17th century, a new consciousness of the literary text as a written ...
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The foregoing chapter attempts to identify a major change in the cultural condition of art, already in process at the turn of the 17th century, a new consciousness of the literary text as a written or printed object, which was to undermine its traditional status as a transcription of experience and its author's claim to control the meaning of that transcription. This change in the status of the text and of the author can be seen not only in such auspiciously self-reflective ‘sports’ of earlier literary history but thanks to recent poststructuralist speculation, even in those pre-modern texts where the mimetic impulse and claim seem most strong. This chapter attempts to account for this latest mutation in the institution of literature. It discusses literary criticism, structuralism, semiology, poststructuralism, Marxism, and literary theory.Less
The foregoing chapter attempts to identify a major change in the cultural condition of art, already in process at the turn of the 17th century, a new consciousness of the literary text as a written or printed object, which was to undermine its traditional status as a transcription of experience and its author's claim to control the meaning of that transcription. This change in the status of the text and of the author can be seen not only in such auspiciously self-reflective ‘sports’ of earlier literary history but thanks to recent poststructuralist speculation, even in those pre-modern texts where the mimetic impulse and claim seem most strong. This chapter attempts to account for this latest mutation in the institution of literature. It discusses literary criticism, structuralism, semiology, poststructuralism, Marxism, and literary theory.
Nicholas Dames
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199208968
- eISBN:
- 9780191695759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208968.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter explores physiological novel theory's vexed relation with notions of ‘organic form’ by examining the discourse of psychophysics, a theory of the discrete building-blocks of ...
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This chapter explores physiological novel theory's vexed relation with notions of ‘organic form’ by examining the discourse of psychophysics, a theory of the discrete building-blocks of consciousness, and how its description of ‘units of consciousness’ made older notions of organic wholeness untenable, as reflected in both Vernon Lee's essays on the novel form and George Meredith's ostentatiously fragmented The Egoist (1879).Less
This chapter explores physiological novel theory's vexed relation with notions of ‘organic form’ by examining the discourse of psychophysics, a theory of the discrete building-blocks of consciousness, and how its description of ‘units of consciousness’ made older notions of organic wholeness untenable, as reflected in both Vernon Lee's essays on the novel form and George Meredith's ostentatiously fragmented The Egoist (1879).
