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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Keith B. Mitchell and Robin G. Vander (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617036828
- eISBN:
- 9781617036835
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617036828.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
Percival Everett writes novels, short stories, poetry, and essays, and is one of the most prolific, acclaimed, yet under-examined African-American writers working today. Although to date, Everett has ...
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Percival Everett writes novels, short stories, poetry, and essays, and is one of the most prolific, acclaimed, yet under-examined African-American writers working today. Although to date, Everett has published eighteen novels, three collections of short fiction, three poetry collections, and one children’s book, his work has not garnered the critical attention that it deserves. Perhaps one of the most vexing problems black and white scholars have had in trying to situate Everett’s work is that they have found it difficult to “place” him and his work within a prescribed African-American literary tradition. Because he happens to be African American, critics have expectations of so-called “authentic” African-American fiction; however, his work often thwarts these expectations. This book engages all of Everett’s creative production. On the one hand, Everett is an African-American novelist. On the other hand, he pursues subject matters that seemingly have little to do with African-American culture. The operative word here is “seemingly”; for as these chapters demonstrate, Everett’s works fall well within, as well as outside, of what most critics would deem the African-American literary tradition. These chapters examine issues of identity, authenticity, and semiotics, in addition to postmodernism and African-American and American literary traditions—issues essential to understanding his aesthetic and political concerns.Less
Percival Everett writes novels, short stories, poetry, and essays, and is one of the most prolific, acclaimed, yet under-examined African-American writers working today. Although to date, Everett has published eighteen novels, three collections of short fiction, three poetry collections, and one children’s book, his work has not garnered the critical attention that it deserves. Perhaps one of the most vexing problems black and white scholars have had in trying to situate Everett’s work is that they have found it difficult to “place” him and his work within a prescribed African-American literary tradition. Because he happens to be African American, critics have expectations of so-called “authentic” African-American fiction; however, his work often thwarts these expectations. This book engages all of Everett’s creative production. On the one hand, Everett is an African-American novelist. On the other hand, he pursues subject matters that seemingly have little to do with African-American culture. The operative word here is “seemingly”; for as these chapters demonstrate, Everett’s works fall well within, as well as outside, of what most critics would deem the African-American literary tradition. These chapters examine issues of identity, authenticity, and semiotics, in addition to postmodernism and African-American and American literary traditions—issues essential to understanding his aesthetic and political concerns.
Jane O. Newman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801476594
- eISBN:
- 9780801460883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801476594.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter first considers the ways in which Benjamin read the Silesian plays precisely not as the “tragic dramas” of John Osborne's English-language translation, but rather as “mourning-play” ...
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This chapter first considers the ways in which Benjamin read the Silesian plays precisely not as the “tragic dramas” of John Osborne's English-language translation, but rather as “mourning-play” texts that differed significantly from ancient tragedy in Benjamin's mind. It then examines the art historical debates pertaining to the Renaissance and the German Baroque and how they articulated a new periodicity of style that involved the collectivity of the nation in important ways. The chapter next turns to contemporary definitions of a specifically literary German Baroque by critics Fritz Strich and Arthur Hübscher. Their discussions mirrored the art historical conversations by striving to locate the essence of a German literary tradition in an autonomous national sensibility and canon of forms. Benjamin's Baroque dipped into and was part of these several discussions of the Baroque as a “heroic” national age.Less
This chapter first considers the ways in which Benjamin read the Silesian plays precisely not as the “tragic dramas” of John Osborne's English-language translation, but rather as “mourning-play” texts that differed significantly from ancient tragedy in Benjamin's mind. It then examines the art historical debates pertaining to the Renaissance and the German Baroque and how they articulated a new periodicity of style that involved the collectivity of the nation in important ways. The chapter next turns to contemporary definitions of a specifically literary German Baroque by critics Fritz Strich and Arthur Hübscher. Their discussions mirrored the art historical conversations by striving to locate the essence of a German literary tradition in an autonomous national sensibility and canon of forms. Benjamin's Baroque dipped into and was part of these several discussions of the Baroque as a “heroic” national age.
Gary Forsythe
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520226517
- eISBN:
- 9780520940291
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520226517.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This chapter addresses Livy's first book in treating the period of the early kings. The earliest Roman graves show that the people who lived at the site of Rome during the tenth and ninth centuries ...
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This chapter addresses Livy's first book in treating the period of the early kings. The earliest Roman graves show that the people who lived at the site of Rome during the tenth and ninth centuries B.C. partook of the same Latial culture. The ancients believed that the Palatine was the initial site of Romulus' settlement, and it was thought to sustain the most venerable cults of the Roman people. The ancient literary tradition is also discussed. Archaeology can be enlisted to test in some degree the claims of the ancient literary tradition concerning two alleged public works carried out during the late regal period. Rome's growth and expanding horizons are dealt. It is stated that various indications, including modern demographic estimates and ancient historical data, seem to converge in showing that by the end of the sixth century B.C. Rome had emerged as the single most important state in Latium.Less
This chapter addresses Livy's first book in treating the period of the early kings. The earliest Roman graves show that the people who lived at the site of Rome during the tenth and ninth centuries B.C. partook of the same Latial culture. The ancients believed that the Palatine was the initial site of Romulus' settlement, and it was thought to sustain the most venerable cults of the Roman people. The ancient literary tradition is also discussed. Archaeology can be enlisted to test in some degree the claims of the ancient literary tradition concerning two alleged public works carried out during the late regal period. Rome's growth and expanding horizons are dealt. It is stated that various indications, including modern demographic estimates and ancient historical data, seem to converge in showing that by the end of the sixth century B.C. Rome had emerged as the single most important state in Latium.
Peter Uwe Hohendahl
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452369
- eISBN:
- 9780801469282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452369.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter examines Theodor Adorno's arguments regarding the role of the concept of classicism in German literary history by focusing on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It considers Adorno's essay “On ...
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This chapter examines Theodor Adorno's arguments regarding the role of the concept of classicism in German literary history by focusing on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It considers Adorno's essay “On the Classicism of Goethe's Iphigenia,” delivered as a public lecture at the Free University in Berlin in 1967, in which he articulated his position in the complex postwar discussion about the function and value of the German literary tradition. It argues that Adorno's essay on Goethe's play Iphigenia in Tauris is anything but a polemic. It also explains how Adorno opens up a dimension of meaning that calls into question the notion of cultural superiority commonly associated with the concept of German classicism without dismissing it as pure ideology. Finally, the chapter discusses Adorno's critical assessment of the concept of realism through his two short essays on Honoré de Balzac, in which he explores the link between representation and social reality.Less
This chapter examines Theodor Adorno's arguments regarding the role of the concept of classicism in German literary history by focusing on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It considers Adorno's essay “On the Classicism of Goethe's Iphigenia,” delivered as a public lecture at the Free University in Berlin in 1967, in which he articulated his position in the complex postwar discussion about the function and value of the German literary tradition. It argues that Adorno's essay on Goethe's play Iphigenia in Tauris is anything but a polemic. It also explains how Adorno opens up a dimension of meaning that calls into question the notion of cultural superiority commonly associated with the concept of German classicism without dismissing it as pure ideology. Finally, the chapter discusses Adorno's critical assessment of the concept of realism through his two short essays on Honoré de Balzac, in which he explores the link between representation and social reality.
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.
