Katharine Hodgson
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262894
- eISBN:
- 9780191734977
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262894.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. Part of the purpose of this study has been to recover a sense of the range and scope of the work of just one of the writers generally thought to be ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. Part of the purpose of this study has been to recover a sense of the range and scope of the work of just one of the writers generally thought to be part of the world of official Soviet literature. Berggol′ts is known first of all for her wartime poetry; that work deserves to be placed firmly in the context of her writing before and after the war. Its importance should not be denied, but it should not be seen as a sudden, unprecedented outburst of creativity. In its exploration of Berggol′ts's writing, this study has shown that life and art became tightly entangled in her poetry and prose; the poet's own conviction that the two should be intimately connected is demonstrated by her texts. Yet it would be wrong to lose sight of the fact that we have been dealing with literary texts which must be viewed in relation to other literary texts. While much of what Berggol′ts wrote displays its connection with events in her life and in the life of her society, her writing also reveals its awareness of how others wrote. Russian literary tradition and the poetry of her contemporaries helped to form Berggol′ts's work.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. Part of the purpose of this study has been to recover a sense of the range and scope of the work of just one of the writers generally thought to be part of the world of official Soviet literature. Berggol′ts is known first of all for her wartime poetry; that work deserves to be placed firmly in the context of her writing before and after the war. Its importance should not be denied, but it should not be seen as a sudden, unprecedented outburst of creativity. In its exploration of Berggol′ts's writing, this study has shown that life and art became tightly entangled in her poetry and prose; the poet's own conviction that the two should be intimately connected is demonstrated by her texts. Yet it would be wrong to lose sight of the fact that we have been dealing with literary texts which must be viewed in relation to other literary texts. While much of what Berggol′ts wrote displays its connection with events in her life and in the life of her society, her writing also reveals its awareness of how others wrote. Russian literary tradition and the poetry of her contemporaries helped to form Berggol′ts's work.
Martin S. Jaffee
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195140675
- eISBN:
- 9780199834334
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195140672.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Introduces key technical terms referring to the composition and transmission of oral tradition, and proposes a general theoretical model for studying the various elements of Jewish oral tradition in ...
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Introduces key technical terms referring to the composition and transmission of oral tradition, and proposes a general theoretical model for studying the various elements of Jewish oral tradition in particular. The most important technical terms are: “oral‐literary tradition” (defined as “verbal products of a culture that have pretensions beyond everyday speech”); “oral‐performative tradition” (defined as “the sum of performative strategies” for transmitting the content of oral‐literary tradition); and “text‐interpretive tradition” (defined as “the body of interpretive understandings that arise from multiple performances of a text”). The theoretical model of oral tradition employed here enables studies of the interrelationships among three dimensions of Jewish oral tradition: the textual substance of the tradition, the social settings for its transmission, and, most importantly, the ideological system by which the texts of oral tradition are represented. For rabbinic Judaism, the concept of Torah in the Mouth and the description of the earliest rabbinic text (the Mishnah) as repeated tradition are the crucial ideological elements under study.Less
Introduces key technical terms referring to the composition and transmission of oral tradition, and proposes a general theoretical model for studying the various elements of Jewish oral tradition in particular. The most important technical terms are: “oral‐literary tradition” (defined as “verbal products of a culture that have pretensions beyond everyday speech”); “oral‐performative tradition” (defined as “the sum of performative strategies” for transmitting the content of oral‐literary tradition); and “text‐interpretive tradition” (defined as “the body of interpretive understandings that arise from multiple performances of a text”). The theoretical model of oral tradition employed here enables studies of the interrelationships among three dimensions of Jewish oral tradition: the textual substance of the tradition, the social settings for its transmission, and, most importantly, the ideological system by which the texts of oral tradition are represented. For rabbinic Judaism, the concept of Torah in the Mouth and the description of the earliest rabbinic text (the Mishnah) as repeated tradition are the crucial ideological elements under study.
Jane Spencer
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199262960
- eISBN:
- 9780191718731
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199262960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book argues that kinship relations between writers, both literal and figurative, played a central part in the creation of a national tradition of English literature in the years 1660-1830. ...
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This book argues that kinship relations between writers, both literal and figurative, played a central part in the creation of a national tradition of English literature in the years 1660-1830. Weaving together biographical readings, reception study, and feminist cultural analysis, it offers a new picture of the English literary canon as a symbolic family. Through studies of writing relationships, including those between William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Henry and Sarah Fielding, Frances and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, it shows that kinship between writers played a significant role not only in individual lives but in key events of literary history, including the rise of the novel and the genesis of Romanticism. As writers looked back to founding fathers, and hoped to have writing sons, the literary tradition was modelled on the patriarchal family, imagined in tropes of genealogy and inheritance. This process marginalized but did not exclude women, and the book highlights the importance both of myths of motherhood and the daughterly position accorded women writers to the formation of literary tradition. The complex role of the literary mentor and its relationship to tropes of paternity are also discussed. The study ranges from the work of Dryden, with its emphasis on literature as patrilineal inheritance, to the reception of Austen, which shows uneven but significant process towards understanding the woman writer as an inheriting daughter and generative mother.Less
This book argues that kinship relations between writers, both literal and figurative, played a central part in the creation of a national tradition of English literature in the years 1660-1830. Weaving together biographical readings, reception study, and feminist cultural analysis, it offers a new picture of the English literary canon as a symbolic family. Through studies of writing relationships, including those between William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Henry and Sarah Fielding, Frances and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, it shows that kinship between writers played a significant role not only in individual lives but in key events of literary history, including the rise of the novel and the genesis of Romanticism. As writers looked back to founding fathers, and hoped to have writing sons, the literary tradition was modelled on the patriarchal family, imagined in tropes of genealogy and inheritance. This process marginalized but did not exclude women, and the book highlights the importance both of myths of motherhood and the daughterly position accorded women writers to the formation of literary tradition. The complex role of the literary mentor and its relationship to tropes of paternity are also discussed. The study ranges from the work of Dryden, with its emphasis on literature as patrilineal inheritance, to the reception of Austen, which shows uneven but significant process towards understanding the woman writer as an inheriting daughter and generative mother.
Matthew Bell
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158943
- eISBN:
- 9780191673429
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158943.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
For many readers in the English-speaking world, Goethe has somehow remained separate from the European intellectual and literary tradition. This study aims to correct this view by showing how Goethe ...
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For many readers in the English-speaking world, Goethe has somehow remained separate from the European intellectual and literary tradition. This study aims to correct this view by showing how Goethe portrayed human beings as part of a natural continuum, very much in the spirit of the Enlightenment. The author's fresh readings of Goethe's major and lesser-known texts are set against the background of the science and philosophy of the age, and the writer's debts to other thinkers are analysed. Placing Goethe in an anthropological context, this book demonstrates that 18th-century anthropological thought provides an essential, hitherto overlooked context for the understanding of Goethe's literary enterprise from Werther to Die Wahllverwandtschaften.Less
For many readers in the English-speaking world, Goethe has somehow remained separate from the European intellectual and literary tradition. This study aims to correct this view by showing how Goethe portrayed human beings as part of a natural continuum, very much in the spirit of the Enlightenment. The author's fresh readings of Goethe's major and lesser-known texts are set against the background of the science and philosophy of the age, and the writer's debts to other thinkers are analysed. Placing Goethe in an anthropological context, this book demonstrates that 18th-century anthropological thought provides an essential, hitherto overlooked context for the understanding of Goethe's literary enterprise from Werther to Die Wahllverwandtschaften.
Peter Mack
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691194004
- eISBN:
- 9780691195353
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691194004.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This introductory chapter discusses the ways in which the related notions of tradition and literary tradition have been used and analyzed. It begins by showing the complexity of the word's meanings ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the ways in which the related notions of tradition and literary tradition have been used and analyzed. It begins by showing the complexity of the word's meanings and associations through a survey of its uses, based firmly on the Oxford English Dictionary and the work of Harry Levin. Then the chapter considers the influential literary approach to tradition in the work of the first French and English critics to exploit the term, Sainte-Beuve and T. S. Eliot. Next, the chapter describes the generally negative approach to tradition in the sociological tradition. Afterward, it discusses the historical analysis of the invention of tradition as presented in the influential collection of essays under that title edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (1983). Finally, it looks in some detail at the very rich account of tradition presented in Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method (1960).Less
This introductory chapter discusses the ways in which the related notions of tradition and literary tradition have been used and analyzed. It begins by showing the complexity of the word's meanings and associations through a survey of its uses, based firmly on the Oxford English Dictionary and the work of Harry Levin. Then the chapter considers the influential literary approach to tradition in the work of the first French and English critics to exploit the term, Sainte-Beuve and T. S. Eliot. Next, the chapter describes the generally negative approach to tradition in the sociological tradition. Afterward, it discusses the historical analysis of the invention of tradition as presented in the influential collection of essays under that title edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (1983). Finally, it looks in some detail at the very rich account of tradition presented in Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method (1960).
Richard Terry
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198186236
- eISBN:
- 9780191718557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186236.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter discusses two related conceits that express how literature is passed down between generations. In the first, tradition is viewed as a process of filiation: a great writer of an earlier ...
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This chapter discusses two related conceits that express how literature is passed down between generations. In the first, tradition is viewed as a process of filiation: a great writer of an earlier time stands to one of a later era as a father to his son, and a great work of a previous age can be seen as a sort of familial heirloom passed down from one generation to the next. In the second, the later writer is linked to the former not through figurative parentage, but through the Pythagorean transmigration of souls. Specifically as regards English literature, an influential metaphor has long been one in which the unfolding of tradition is figured as a paternal-filial nexus: the earlier writer uses his influence, as it were, to sire the later one. The conceit of literary paternity has become a standard way of imagining the relations of influence and emulation obtaining between writers in the literary tradition. The popularity of the parental metaphor may still owe much to the particular use made of it by one writer alone: John Dryden.Less
This chapter discusses two related conceits that express how literature is passed down between generations. In the first, tradition is viewed as a process of filiation: a great writer of an earlier time stands to one of a later era as a father to his son, and a great work of a previous age can be seen as a sort of familial heirloom passed down from one generation to the next. In the second, the later writer is linked to the former not through figurative parentage, but through the Pythagorean transmigration of souls. Specifically as regards English literature, an influential metaphor has long been one in which the unfolding of tradition is figured as a paternal-filial nexus: the earlier writer uses his influence, as it were, to sire the later one. The conceit of literary paternity has become a standard way of imagining the relations of influence and emulation obtaining between writers in the literary tradition. The popularity of the parental metaphor may still owe much to the particular use made of it by one writer alone: John Dryden.
DAVID BROOKSHAW
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265246
- eISBN:
- 9780191754197
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265246.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This chapter discusses the extent to which it is feasible to talk of a black Brazilian literary tradition that is somehow cohesive, conscious of itself and self-reflective. In looking at works by ...
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This chapter discusses the extent to which it is feasible to talk of a black Brazilian literary tradition that is somehow cohesive, conscious of itself and self-reflective. In looking at works by black fiction writers during the second half of the twentieth century, such as Romeu Crusoé, Oswaldo de Camargo, Cuti, Geni Guimarães, Marilene Felinto and Muniz Sodré, it suggests that writers of African descent who self-identify as black Brazilians are to a large extent bound by identification with region as much as they are with skin colour, in a similar way to other ‘ethnic’ writers in Brazil.Less
This chapter discusses the extent to which it is feasible to talk of a black Brazilian literary tradition that is somehow cohesive, conscious of itself and self-reflective. In looking at works by black fiction writers during the second half of the twentieth century, such as Romeu Crusoé, Oswaldo de Camargo, Cuti, Geni Guimarães, Marilene Felinto and Muniz Sodré, it suggests that writers of African descent who self-identify as black Brazilians are to a large extent bound by identification with region as much as they are with skin colour, in a similar way to other ‘ethnic’ writers in Brazil.
Eve-Marie Becker
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300165098
- eISBN:
- 9780300165371
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300165098.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter studies the interrelation of history-writing and literary culture. It considers the function of history-writing within the context of Hellenistic literary culture, as historiography at ...
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This chapter studies the interrelation of history-writing and literary culture. It considers the function of history-writing within the context of Hellenistic literary culture, as historiography at the time can be seen as a literary phenomenon. History-writing represents a substantial contribution to ancient literature; it circulates within the sphere of the ancient literary canon. Chronologically speaking, Mark and Luke follow in the literary tradition set by the earliest in Western history-writing, yet literary tradition among the earliest Christian authors also differs from the Greco-Roman world. Where historiographical topics and concepts vary significantly from one author to the next, in Mark and Luke, the subject of the narrative, namely, the gospel, remains surprisingly constant.Less
This chapter studies the interrelation of history-writing and literary culture. It considers the function of history-writing within the context of Hellenistic literary culture, as historiography at the time can be seen as a literary phenomenon. History-writing represents a substantial contribution to ancient literature; it circulates within the sphere of the ancient literary canon. Chronologically speaking, Mark and Luke follow in the literary tradition set by the earliest in Western history-writing, yet literary tradition among the earliest Christian authors also differs from the Greco-Roman world. Where historiographical topics and concepts vary significantly from one author to the next, in Mark and Luke, the subject of the narrative, namely, the gospel, remains surprisingly constant.
Jack Zipes
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153384
- eISBN:
- 9781400841820
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153384.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter attempts to clarify the importance of the connections between witches and fairies coupled with their deep roots in pagan and Greco-Roman beliefs by moving away from western Europe to ...
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This chapter attempts to clarify the importance of the connections between witches and fairies coupled with their deep roots in pagan and Greco-Roman beliefs by moving away from western Europe to look at the great witch Baba Yaga of Slavic countries. It cites three reasons for concentrating on Baba Yaga and Slavic fairy tales. The first one regards neglect. For the most part, the focus of folklore and fairy-tale studies in the United States and western Europe has been on the works of the Brothers Grimm and other notable western European writers and folklorist. The second is to understand the relationship between goddesses, witches, and fairies. The third reason is that a brief analysis of Baba Yaga tales with a focus on the neglected work Russian Folk Tales (1873), translated and edited by W.R.S. Ralston (1828–89), might assist us in grasping how oral and literary traditions work together to reinforce the memetic replication of fairy tales.Less
This chapter attempts to clarify the importance of the connections between witches and fairies coupled with their deep roots in pagan and Greco-Roman beliefs by moving away from western Europe to look at the great witch Baba Yaga of Slavic countries. It cites three reasons for concentrating on Baba Yaga and Slavic fairy tales. The first one regards neglect. For the most part, the focus of folklore and fairy-tale studies in the United States and western Europe has been on the works of the Brothers Grimm and other notable western European writers and folklorist. The second is to understand the relationship between goddesses, witches, and fairies. The third reason is that a brief analysis of Baba Yaga tales with a focus on the neglected work Russian Folk Tales (1873), translated and edited by W.R.S. Ralston (1828–89), might assist us in grasping how oral and literary traditions work together to reinforce the memetic replication of fairy tales.
Peter Mack
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691194004
- eISBN:
- 9780691195353
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691194004.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
In literary and cultural studies, “tradition” is a word everyone uses but few address critically. In this book, the author offers a wide-ranging exploration of the creative power of literary ...
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In literary and cultural studies, “tradition” is a word everyone uses but few address critically. In this book, the author offers a wide-ranging exploration of the creative power of literary tradition, from the middle ages to the twenty-first century, revealing in new ways how it helps writers and readers make new works and meanings. The book argues that the best way to understand tradition is by examining the moments when a writer takes up an old text and writes something new out of a dialogue with that text and the promptings of the present situation. The book examines Petrarch as a user, instigator, and victim of tradition. It shows how Chaucer became the first great English writer by translating and adapting a minor poem by Boccaccio. It investigates how Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser made new epic meanings by playing with assumptions, episodes, and phrases translated from their predecessors. It then analyzes how the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell drew on tradition to address the new problem of urban deprivation in Mary Barton. And, finally, it looks at how the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, in his 2004 novel Wizard of the Crow, reflects on biblical, English literary, and African traditions. Drawing on key theorists, critics, historians, and sociologists, and stressing the international character of literary tradition, the book illuminates the not entirely free choices readers and writers make to create meaning in collaboration and competition with their models.Less
In literary and cultural studies, “tradition” is a word everyone uses but few address critically. In this book, the author offers a wide-ranging exploration of the creative power of literary tradition, from the middle ages to the twenty-first century, revealing in new ways how it helps writers and readers make new works and meanings. The book argues that the best way to understand tradition is by examining the moments when a writer takes up an old text and writes something new out of a dialogue with that text and the promptings of the present situation. The book examines Petrarch as a user, instigator, and victim of tradition. It shows how Chaucer became the first great English writer by translating and adapting a minor poem by Boccaccio. It investigates how Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser made new epic meanings by playing with assumptions, episodes, and phrases translated from their predecessors. It then analyzes how the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell drew on tradition to address the new problem of urban deprivation in Mary Barton. And, finally, it looks at how the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, in his 2004 novel Wizard of the Crow, reflects on biblical, English literary, and African traditions. Drawing on key theorists, critics, historians, and sociologists, and stressing the international character of literary tradition, the book illuminates the not entirely free choices readers and writers make to create meaning in collaboration and competition with their models.
Amram Tropper
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199267125
- eISBN:
- 9780191699184
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267125.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Religion in the Ancient World
This chapter explores the literary context for the structure and contents of Avot. It suggests that Avot's collection of named sayings is a rabbinic version of a popular Hellenistic anthropology ...
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This chapter explores the literary context for the structure and contents of Avot. It suggests that Avot's collection of named sayings is a rabbinic version of a popular Hellenistic anthropology genre. By analyzing the rabbinic adaptation of popular literary forms, it shows how the classicism and scholasticism characteristic of the Second Sophistic were also expressed in Avot. Despite the important traces of Hebrew wisdom in Avot, the structure of Avot reflects Hellenistic succession lists rather than a traditional Jewish literary convention. The collection of named sayings in Avot most closely resembles similar connections from the Graeco-Roman world and chreiai collections in particular.Less
This chapter explores the literary context for the structure and contents of Avot. It suggests that Avot's collection of named sayings is a rabbinic version of a popular Hellenistic anthropology genre. By analyzing the rabbinic adaptation of popular literary forms, it shows how the classicism and scholasticism characteristic of the Second Sophistic were also expressed in Avot. Despite the important traces of Hebrew wisdom in Avot, the structure of Avot reflects Hellenistic succession lists rather than a traditional Jewish literary convention. The collection of named sayings in Avot most closely resembles similar connections from the Graeco-Roman world and chreiai collections in particular.
J. M. Wallace‐Hadrill
- Published in print:
- 1983
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269069
- eISBN:
- 9780191600777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269064.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Looks at the Gallo–Roman religious experience as a heritage for the Frankish (Germanic) Church. In the 5th century, the Gallo–Roman churches (rather than a Church) were separate Christian communities ...
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Looks at the Gallo–Roman religious experience as a heritage for the Frankish (Germanic) Church. In the 5th century, the Gallo–Roman churches (rather than a Church) were separate Christian communities in cities, each under a bishop, and closely related to the structure of the late‐imperial administration; some had ancient origins from the days of persecution. This century was also an age of barbarian invasion and settlement in Gaul, in which the bishops, by and large, stood firm as protectors in the Roman tradition, although not as secular administrators (as their Merovingian successors would become). The various aspects of the period discussed in the chapter include, the radical bishops (who were mostly ascetics), saints, the cults of asceticism (monks) and relics, miracles as proof of sanctity, Rogation days (devised as a city's confession of guilt, probably in the 460s a.d.), and roles of the bishops in administration (in the diocesan sense) and as controllers of an impressive literary tradition. The last part of the chapter examines the role of Caesarius (bishop and metropolitan of Arles from 503 to 543) in the identification of a secular with a Christian community.Less
Looks at the Gallo–Roman religious experience as a heritage for the Frankish (Germanic) Church. In the 5th century, the Gallo–Roman churches (rather than a Church) were separate Christian communities in cities, each under a bishop, and closely related to the structure of the late‐imperial administration; some had ancient origins from the days of persecution. This century was also an age of barbarian invasion and settlement in Gaul, in which the bishops, by and large, stood firm as protectors in the Roman tradition, although not as secular administrators (as their Merovingian successors would become). The various aspects of the period discussed in the chapter include, the radical bishops (who were mostly ascetics), saints, the cults of asceticism (monks) and relics, miracles as proof of sanctity, Rogation days (devised as a city's confession of guilt, probably in the 460s a.d.), and roles of the bishops in administration (in the diocesan sense) and as controllers of an impressive literary tradition. The last part of the chapter examines the role of Caesarius (bishop and metropolitan of Arles from 503 to 543) in the identification of a secular with a Christian community.
W.J. Mc Cormack
- Published in print:
- 1985
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128069
- eISBN:
- 9780191671630
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128069.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The emergence of Anglo-Irish literature lies close to the heart of European romanticism. The Anglo-Irish Renaissance is central to modernist literature in the English language. With these two ...
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The emergence of Anglo-Irish literature lies close to the heart of European romanticism. The Anglo-Irish Renaissance is central to modernist literature in the English language. With these two perspectives in mind, this book tries to describe the functioning of two crucial concepts from personal thoughts on heritage— the sociological formation of Protestant Ascendancy and the Yeatsian elaboration of an Irish literary tradition. This book attempts to deal with Yeats and Joyce as mutually defining figures within the totalities which historical as well as literary critical analysis depends upon. Yet while committed to the whole view of Anglo-Irish literature, the book resists the pressures which would establish the Anglo-Irish ‘thing’ as not just literature but a national literature. The book is not intended to rival the various sequential histories and personal guides to Anglo-Irish literature recently published. This book takes its bearing from the development of the romantic proposition in the 19th century which lent credence to the theory of literature as imitation of reality.Less
The emergence of Anglo-Irish literature lies close to the heart of European romanticism. The Anglo-Irish Renaissance is central to modernist literature in the English language. With these two perspectives in mind, this book tries to describe the functioning of two crucial concepts from personal thoughts on heritage— the sociological formation of Protestant Ascendancy and the Yeatsian elaboration of an Irish literary tradition. This book attempts to deal with Yeats and Joyce as mutually defining figures within the totalities which historical as well as literary critical analysis depends upon. Yet while committed to the whole view of Anglo-Irish literature, the book resists the pressures which would establish the Anglo-Irish ‘thing’ as not just literature but a national literature. The book is not intended to rival the various sequential histories and personal guides to Anglo-Irish literature recently published. This book takes its bearing from the development of the romantic proposition in the 19th century which lent credence to the theory of literature as imitation of reality.
Daniel Hack
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691196930
- eISBN:
- 9781400883745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691196930.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This introductory chapter demonstrates how nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century African American literature and print culture used Victorian literature to conduct acts of “African ...
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This introductory chapter demonstrates how nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century African American literature and print culture used Victorian literature to conduct acts of “African Americanization.” Here, close engagement with Victorian literature represented no mere capitulation to existing constraints, but instead constituted a deliberate political strategy and means of artistic expression. The chapter shows that this practice did not impede or undercut the development of a distinctive African American literary culture and tradition, but on the contrary contributed directly to its development. It did so through the very repetition of African Americanizing engagements, repetition that grew increasingly self-conscious and self-referential, as writers and editors built on, responded to, and positioned themselves in relation to prior instances. Victorian literature's role as an important archive for the production of African American literature and print culture, the chapter also argues, makes African American literature and print culture an important archive for the study of Victorian literature.Less
This introductory chapter demonstrates how nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century African American literature and print culture used Victorian literature to conduct acts of “African Americanization.” Here, close engagement with Victorian literature represented no mere capitulation to existing constraints, but instead constituted a deliberate political strategy and means of artistic expression. The chapter shows that this practice did not impede or undercut the development of a distinctive African American literary culture and tradition, but on the contrary contributed directly to its development. It did so through the very repetition of African Americanizing engagements, repetition that grew increasingly self-conscious and self-referential, as writers and editors built on, responded to, and positioned themselves in relation to prior instances. Victorian literature's role as an important archive for the production of African American literature and print culture, the chapter also argues, makes African American literature and print culture an important archive for the study of Victorian literature.
Peter Mack
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691194004
- eISBN:
- 9780691195353
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691194004.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This concluding chapter reflects on the various ways in which authors have used their reading of previous writers. The examples discussed in the previous chapters show both that great original work ...
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This concluding chapter reflects on the various ways in which authors have used their reading of previous writers. The examples discussed in the previous chapters show both that great original work often involves heavy reliance on previous authors and traditions and that this reliance has different aspects and forms. From here, the chapter turns to two issues: canon and nationalism. It considers what this study of literary traditions has suggested about what students should be expected to read as part of their literary education. The chapter suggests the use of the distinction between readers' and writers' traditions, which has emerged from these studies to address the question of the literary canon. It also considers how we define the literary traditions which writers can benefit from studying, and what would be a good canon of reading for someone who wants to write.Less
This concluding chapter reflects on the various ways in which authors have used their reading of previous writers. The examples discussed in the previous chapters show both that great original work often involves heavy reliance on previous authors and traditions and that this reliance has different aspects and forms. From here, the chapter turns to two issues: canon and nationalism. It considers what this study of literary traditions has suggested about what students should be expected to read as part of their literary education. The chapter suggests the use of the distinction between readers' and writers' traditions, which has emerged from these studies to address the question of the literary canon. It also considers how we define the literary traditions which writers can benefit from studying, and what would be a good canon of reading for someone who wants to write.
Richard Terry
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198186236
- eISBN:
- 9780191718557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186236.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
The final quarter of the 18th century sees the appearance of the first multi-volume compilations of English poetry, including John Bell's The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill ...
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The final quarter of the 18th century sees the appearance of the first multi-volume compilations of English poetry, including John Bell's The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill (1776-1782) and its English rival The Works of the English Poets (1779-1781), boasting biographical prefaces by the hand of Samuel Johnson. In the following decade appeared Robert Anderson's Works of the British Poets (1792-1795), itself fifteen years later to be succeeded by a nearly identical production in Alexander Chalmers's twenty-one volume Works of the English Poets from Chaucer to Cowper (1810). One fact about these works is that none admits even a solitary woman poet. This chapter contends that the process of women writers' accession to their own canon, as well as their incorporation into the larger poetic tradition, occurs somewhat earlier than thought in the form of historical anthologies and general and authorial biographies.Less
The final quarter of the 18th century sees the appearance of the first multi-volume compilations of English poetry, including John Bell's The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill (1776-1782) and its English rival The Works of the English Poets (1779-1781), boasting biographical prefaces by the hand of Samuel Johnson. In the following decade appeared Robert Anderson's Works of the British Poets (1792-1795), itself fifteen years later to be succeeded by a nearly identical production in Alexander Chalmers's twenty-one volume Works of the English Poets from Chaucer to Cowper (1810). One fact about these works is that none admits even a solitary woman poet. This chapter contends that the process of women writers' accession to their own canon, as well as their incorporation into the larger poetic tradition, occurs somewhat earlier than thought in the form of historical anthologies and general and authorial biographies.
Mary Douglas
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199245413
- eISBN:
- 9780191697463
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199245413.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
There is a general scholarly consensus that the Book of Numbers received its final form during the exile in Babylon and shortly after the return. It is also well understood that the materials from ...
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There is a general scholarly consensus that the Book of Numbers received its final form during the exile in Babylon and shortly after the return. It is also well understood that the materials from which it was compiled are very ancient, some coming from oral traditions, some written, some laws, some stories. This view is compatible with finding parts of the text disjointed. It comes very close to charging the editor with incompetence, or at least with carelessness. The opposite view is proposed here in this chapter: that the book has been very carefully constructed and that the many repetitions and jumps of context are not accidental. However, Numbers reads as a story crudely interrupted by bits of laws, and laws interrupted by story. The severest critic of the redactor's editorial skills is the esteemed biblical scholar, Martin Noth. The literary traditions of the place and period are taken into account in the chapter.Less
There is a general scholarly consensus that the Book of Numbers received its final form during the exile in Babylon and shortly after the return. It is also well understood that the materials from which it was compiled are very ancient, some coming from oral traditions, some written, some laws, some stories. This view is compatible with finding parts of the text disjointed. It comes very close to charging the editor with incompetence, or at least with carelessness. The opposite view is proposed here in this chapter: that the book has been very carefully constructed and that the many repetitions and jumps of context are not accidental. However, Numbers reads as a story crudely interrupted by bits of laws, and laws interrupted by story. The severest critic of the redactor's editorial skills is the esteemed biblical scholar, Martin Noth. The literary traditions of the place and period are taken into account in the chapter.
Glanmor Williams
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780192852786
- eISBN:
- 9780191670565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192852786.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter discusses the literary traditions of Wales and describes two major elements which helped inject new life into the cultural life of the Welsh. It discusses the development of the ...
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This chapter discusses the literary traditions of Wales and describes two major elements which helped inject new life into the cultural life of the Welsh. It discusses the development of the provincial printing-press and the scholarly zeal of Edward Lhuyd, the versatile Oxford scholar, who sought to broaden the intellectual horizons of his countrymen and sow the seeds of ideological concepts which would grow luxuriantly in the future. The Welsh press provided native culture with a new momentum by publishing and selling cheap books that stimulated demand for Welsh books. New ventures sprang up, sponsored by practical men of enterprise who were keen to stimulate and satisfy the demands of the swelling ranks of the reading public.Less
This chapter discusses the literary traditions of Wales and describes two major elements which helped inject new life into the cultural life of the Welsh. It discusses the development of the provincial printing-press and the scholarly zeal of Edward Lhuyd, the versatile Oxford scholar, who sought to broaden the intellectual horizons of his countrymen and sow the seeds of ideological concepts which would grow luxuriantly in the future. The Welsh press provided native culture with a new momentum by publishing and selling cheap books that stimulated demand for Welsh books. New ventures sprang up, sponsored by practical men of enterprise who were keen to stimulate and satisfy the demands of the swelling ranks of the reading public.
Andrew Epstein
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195181005
- eISBN:
- 9780199851010
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181005.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
Amiri Baraka envisions poetry to be a form of contentious position-taking in the literary field. In his poems, his plays, and his one highly experimental novel, Baraka's writing confronts, in diverse ...
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Amiri Baraka envisions poetry to be a form of contentious position-taking in the literary field. In his poems, his plays, and his one highly experimental novel, Baraka's writing confronts, in diverse ways, the conflict between the nonconformist impulse and the desire to join forces with a collective artistic movement. From his older friend Frank O'Hara, Baraka learns that poetry itself can be an arena in which to grapple with friendship and its discontents, even to play off the writing of one's friends. However, Baraka's writings are fraught with even greater pain, urgency, and indecision than O'Hara's ambivalent poems. His works simultaneously celebrate and try to jettison a series of intertwined values and concepts: avant-garde poetics, whiteness, Western literary tradition, and, as this chapter suggests, homosexuality.Less
Amiri Baraka envisions poetry to be a form of contentious position-taking in the literary field. In his poems, his plays, and his one highly experimental novel, Baraka's writing confronts, in diverse ways, the conflict between the nonconformist impulse and the desire to join forces with a collective artistic movement. From his older friend Frank O'Hara, Baraka learns that poetry itself can be an arena in which to grapple with friendship and its discontents, even to play off the writing of one's friends. However, Baraka's writings are fraught with even greater pain, urgency, and indecision than O'Hara's ambivalent poems. His works simultaneously celebrate and try to jettison a series of intertwined values and concepts: avant-garde poetics, whiteness, Western literary tradition, and, as this chapter suggests, homosexuality.
Laurie Langbauer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198739203
- eISBN:
- 9780191802348
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198739203.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
A juvenile tradition of young writers flourished in Britain between 1750 and 1835. Canonical Romantic poets as well as now-unknown youthful writers published as teenagers. These writers reflected on ...
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A juvenile tradition of young writers flourished in Britain between 1750 and 1835. Canonical Romantic poets as well as now-unknown youthful writers published as teenagers. These writers reflected on their literary juvenilia by using the trope of prolepsis to assert their writing as a literary tradition. Precocious writing, child prodigies, and early genius had been topics of interest since the eighteenth century. Child authors found new publication opportunities because of major shifts in the periodical press, publishing, and education. School magazines and popular juvenile magazines that awarded prizes to child writers made youthful authorship more visible. Modern interest in Romanticism and the self-taught and women writers’ traditions have occluded the tradition of juvenile writing. This study recovers the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century juvenile tradition by drawing on the history of childhood and child studies, along with reception study and scholarship on audience history. It considers the literary juvenilia of Thomas Chatterton, Henry Kirke White, Robert Southey, Leigh Hunt, Jane Austen, and Felicia Hemans. along with the childhood writing of Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and John Keats, and a score of other young poets no longer familiar today. The role of prolepsis in young people’s writing underscores how recovering juvenility recasts literary history. The peculiarly performative vantage point of juvenility, which writes by projecting itself into a future as if already realized, unsettles the assumptions of childhood development and the linearity of literary history.Less
A juvenile tradition of young writers flourished in Britain between 1750 and 1835. Canonical Romantic poets as well as now-unknown youthful writers published as teenagers. These writers reflected on their literary juvenilia by using the trope of prolepsis to assert their writing as a literary tradition. Precocious writing, child prodigies, and early genius had been topics of interest since the eighteenth century. Child authors found new publication opportunities because of major shifts in the periodical press, publishing, and education. School magazines and popular juvenile magazines that awarded prizes to child writers made youthful authorship more visible. Modern interest in Romanticism and the self-taught and women writers’ traditions have occluded the tradition of juvenile writing. This study recovers the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century juvenile tradition by drawing on the history of childhood and child studies, along with reception study and scholarship on audience history. It considers the literary juvenilia of Thomas Chatterton, Henry Kirke White, Robert Southey, Leigh Hunt, Jane Austen, and Felicia Hemans. along with the childhood writing of Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and John Keats, and a score of other young poets no longer familiar today. The role of prolepsis in young people’s writing underscores how recovering juvenility recasts literary history. The peculiarly performative vantage point of juvenility, which writes by projecting itself into a future as if already realized, unsettles the assumptions of childhood development and the linearity of literary history.
