PRINCIPLES AND HISTORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM

By S.C. Mundra, S.C. Agarwal

ISBN 81-7977-015-X

pp.: 600, Price: Rs. 320.00

Also available at amazon.in

List of Contents

Fundamentals of Criticism

THE WORD ‘CRITICISM’ DEFINED; CRITICISM AS INTERPRETATION; CRITICISM AS COMMENTATION, EXPOSITION AND EVALUTION; CRITICISM AS JUDGEMENT; FUNCTIONS OF CRITICISM; QUALIFICATIONS OF A CRITIC; PRINCIPLES OF CRITICISM; FORMS OF CRITICISM; VARIETY OF CRITICISM; CRITICISM AND CREATION; CRITICISM AND SCIENCE

Criticism in Ancient Greece

PLATO (427 B.C.—347 B.C.); JUDICIAL CRITICISM BEFORE PLATO; GROWTH OF LITERARY CRITICISM IN ANCIENT GREECE; CRITICAL REFERENCES ABOUT THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF POETRY; CRITICAL REFERENCES IN GREEK DRAMATIC LITERATURE; THE LIFE OF PLATO; PLATO’S THEORY OF IDEAS; PLATO’S INDICTMENT OF POETRY; PLATO’S VIEWS ON DRAMA; PLATO’S CONTRIBUTION TO CRITICISM; ARISTOTLE (384 B.C.—322 B.C.); THE LIFE OF ARISTOTLE; A CONSIDERATION OF ‘THE POETICS’; ‘THE POETICS’—ITS VALUE; THE CONCEPT OF IMITATION OR ‘MIMESIS’; POETIC TRUTH, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY; DEFINITION OF TRAGEDY; PARTS OF TRAGEDY; THE TRAGIC HERO; RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF PLOT AND CHARACTER IN TRAGEDY; THE FUNCTION OF TRAGEDY: “CATHARSIS”; THE PURGATION THEORY; THE PURIFICATION THEORY; THE CLARIFICATION THEORY; STRUCTURE OF THE TRAGIC PLOT; THE THREE UNITIES; ARISTOTLE’S VIEWS ON COMEDY; ARISTOTLE’S VIEWS ON EPIC AND TRAGEDY; ARISTOTLE’S CONTRIBUTION TO LITERARY CRITICISM; IMPORTANCE OF ‘THE POETICS’

Latin Criticism

HORACE (65 B.C.-8 B.C.); THE LIFE OF HORACE; WORKS OF HORACE; CLASSICISM OF HORACE; HORACE’S PRECEPTS CONCERNING THE ART OF POETRY AND DRAMA; HORACE AS A CRITIC; QUINTILIAN (35 A.D.-95 A.D.)

Graeco-Roman Criticism

LONGINUS; LONGINUS ‘ON THE SUBLIME’; THE TRUE SUBLIME DEFINED; THE FALSE SUBLIME; DISTINCTION BETWEEN TRUE AND FALSE SUBLIME; LONGINUS AS THE FIRST ROMANTIC CIRTIC OF THE ANCIENT WORLD; BLENDING OF THE ROMANTIC AND THE CLASSICAL TENDENCIES IN LONGINUS; LONGINUS’ CONTRIBUTION TO LITERARY CRITICISM

The Renaissance Italian Criticism

DANTE ALIGHIERI [1265-1321]; THE LIFE OF DANTE; WORKS OF DANTE; THE LANGUAGE OF POETRY; DANTE’S THEORY OF POETIC DICTION; DANTE AS A CRITIC

Renaissance Criticism

THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN LITERARY CRITICISM; THE ELIZABETHAN CRITICISM

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

‘AN APOLOGY FOR POETRY’; ANALYSIS OF ‘AN APOLOGY FOR POETRY’; IMPORTANCE OF ‘AN APOLOGY FOR POETRY’; A CONSIDERATION OF RHYME AND VERSE IN POETRY; POETRY AS AN IMITATIVE ART; SIDNEY’S INDEBTEDNESS TO GREEK, LATIN AND ITALIAN RENAISSANCE CRITICS; SIDNEY AND PLATO; SIDNEY AND HORACE; SIDNEY AND ARISTOTLE; SIDNEY AND CICERO; THE ITALIAN INFLUENCE ON SIDNEY; SYNTHESIS OF CLASSICAL AND ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN ‘AN APOLOGY FOR POETRY’; MODERN NOTE IN SIDNEY’S CRITICISM; A CONSIDERATION OF ‘AN APOLOGY FOR POETRY’ AS AN EPITOME OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE CRITICISM; WAS ‘APOLOGY FOR POETRY’ GETTING OUT OF DATE EVEN AS IT WAS BEING WRITTEN?; SIDNEY’S JUDICIAL CRITICISM; CLASSICAL AND ROMANTIC TRAITS IN SIDNEY’S LITERARY CRITICISM; SIDNEY AS THE FATHER OF ENGLISH CRITICISM; SIDNEY’S STYLE AND INFLUENCE; HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF SIDNEY’S LITERARY CRITICISM

Ben Jonson (1573-1637)

GROWTH OF LITERATURE DURING THE RENAISSANCE; BEN JONSON’S REACTION AGAINST ROMANTIC EXTRAVAGANCE; BEN JONSON’S DRAMATIC CRITICISM; BEN JONSON’S VIEWS ON COMEDY; BEN JONSON’S VIEWS ON TRAGEDY; BEN JONSON’S VIEWS ON POETRY; BEN JONSON’S VIEWS ON STYLE; BEN JONSON’S PRACTICAL CRITICISM; BEN JONSON AS A CRITIC

Literary Criticism during the Restoration (1660-1700)

TRADITIONALISM AND RATIONALISM; ANALYSIS AND RHETORIC; THE AIM OF POETRY; THEORY OF IMITATION; THE RULES; THE GENRES; IMAGINATION AND JUDGMENT

Nicholas Boileau (1636-1711)

THE LIFE OF NICHOLAS BOILEAU; BOILEAU’S ACHIEVEMENT AS A CRITIC; BOILEAU’S ‘THE ART POETIQUE’; BOILEAU AND DRYDEN—A COMPARISON

John Dryden (1631-1700)

DRYDEN AND THE NEO-CLASSICAL TRADITION; DRYDEN—THE FIRST GREAT ENGLISH CRITIC; ‘THE ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY’ (1668); ANALYSIS OF ‘THE ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY’; CRITICAL VALUE OF ‘THE ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY’; ‘PREFACE TO THE FABLES’ (1700); ON THE NATURE OF POETRY; THE FUNCTION OF POETRY; DRYDEN ON EPIC POETRY; DRYDEN’S VIEWS ON SATIRE; DRYDEN’S VIEWS ON TRAGEDY; DRYDEN’S VIEWS ON COMEDY; DRYDEN AS A CRITIC; DRYDEN’S PROSE STYLE

Neo-classical Criticism

THE AGE OF NEO-CLASSICISM IN ENGLISH LITERATURE; NEO-CLASSICAL CREED; POETIC DICTION

Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

ADDISON—A JOURNALISTIC CRITIC; ON TRUE AND FALSE WIT; ON THE PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION; ADDISON’S ACHIEVEMENTS AS A CRITIC

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

ALEXANDER POPE’S CRITICAL WORKS; CLASSICISM OF POPE; POPE’S VIEWS ON CRITICISM; POPE’S VIEWS ON LITERATURE; POPE’S ACHIEVEMENTS AS A CRITIC

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

THE CLASSICAL AND ROMANTIC TENDENCIES IN THE AGE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON; JOHNSON’S CRITICAL PRINCIPLES; JOHNSON’S VIEWS ON POETRY; ON KINDS OF POETRY; JOHNSON’S CRITICISM OF SHAKESPEARE—‘THE PREFACE TO SHAKESPEARE’; THE UNITIES; ‘THE LIVES OF THE POETS’; JOHNSON AS A CRITIC

The Romantic Criticism

THE PERIOD OF THE ROMANTIC CRITICISIM (1800-1825); A SURVEY OF ENGLISH CRITICISM FROM THE 16TH TO THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY; FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHANGE IN CRITICAL OUTLOOK; POLITICAL CAUSES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROMANTICISM; THE INFLUENCE OF GERMANY; THE ROMANTIC CREED AND ITS NOTE OF FREEDOM; ROMANTIC CRITICISM INVESTIGATES THE NATURE OF POETRY; ROMANTIC CRITICISM IS ESSENTIALLY CREATIVE IN NATURE

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

WORDSWORTH AS A CRITIC; ‘PREFACE TO THE LYRICAL BALLADS’ (1800): A DETAILED ANALYSIS; WORDSWORTH’S THEORY OF POETRY; WORDSWORTH’S THEORY OF POETIC DICTION AND ITS EXAMINATION BY COLERIDGE IN ‘BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA’; OTHER CRITICAL PRINCIPLES OF WORDSWORTH; THE APPENDIX TO THE ‘PREFACE TO THE LYRICAL BALLADS’; WORDSWORTH’S VIEWS ON IMAGINATION AND FANCY; WORDSWORTH’S ACHIEVEMENT AS A CRITIC

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE AS A CRITIC; COLERIDGE’S DEFINITION OF A POEM; COLERIDGE’S DEFINITION OF A POET; COLERIDGE ON FANCY AND IMAGINATION; ON TALENT AND POETIC GENIUS; COLERIDGE AS A CRITIC OF SHAKESPEARE; COLERIDGE’S ACHIEVEMENT AS A CRITIC

Shelley and Keats

P.B. SHELLEY (1792-1822); SHELLEY’S ACHIEVEMENT AS A CRITIC; JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)

Hazlitt and Lamb

WILLIAM HAZLITT (1778-1830); HAZLITT—A FOLLOWER OF COLERIDGE; HAZLITT—AN IMPRESSIONIST; HAZLITT’S CRITICISM—DIVIDED INTO TWO KINDS; HAZLITT ON POETRY; HAZLITT’S VIEWS ON IMAGINATION; HAZLITT’S DRAMATIC CRITICISM; HAZLITT’S ACHIEVEMENT AS A CRITIC; CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834); LAMB’S DRAMATIC CRITICISM; LAMB’S CRITICISM OF SHAKESPEARE; LAMB’S ACHIEVEMENT AS A CRITIC

The Victorian Criticism

THE VICTORIAN COMPROMISE; THE INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH POSITIVIST PHILOSOPHY; THE ROMANTIC AND THE IDEALISTIC TRENDS; THE BIOGRAPHICAL-CRITICAL METHOD; IMPRESSIONISM

Matthew Arnold (1822-188)

MATTHEW ARNOLD’S CRITICAL WRITINGS; ‘THE STUDY OF POETRY’—A CRITICAL SUMMARY; ‘THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM AT THE PRESENT TIME’—A CRITICAL SUMMARY; ARNOLD’S THEORY OF POETRY; THE GRAND STYLE; CRITICISM OF ARNOLD’S VIEWS; POETRY AS CRITICISM OF LIFE; ARNOLD’S VIEWS ON CRITICISM; THE TOUCHSTONE METHOD; ARNOLD AS A CRITIC; ARNOLD’S INFLUENCE

Walter Pater (1839-93)

PATER—AN EXPONENT OF THE AESTHETIC MOVEMENT; PATER’S CRITICAL WORKS; PATER’S VIEWS ON LITERATURE AND ART; PATER’S VIEWS ON STYLE; THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM; PATER AS A CRITIC

Modern Criticism

A RICH VARIETY OF TRENDS; TWO MAIN DIRECTIONS OF MODERN CRITICISM; MODERN CRITICISM¬¬DEFINED; MASTER METAPHORS OF PROMINENT CRITICS; EXPRESSIONISM

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

T.S. ELIOT AS A CRITIC; ELIOT’S THEORY OF IMPERSONALITY OF POETRY; ELIOT’S THEORY OF ‘OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVE’; ‘DISSOCIATION OF SENSIBILITY’; ELIOT’S VIEWS ON CRITICISM; THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM; ELIOT AS A CRITIC; SOME FAULTS IN ELIOT’S CRITICISM; ‘TRADITION AND THE INDIVIDUAL TALENT’—A CRITICAL SUMMARY; ‘THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM’¬—A CRITICAL SUMMARY; ‘THE FRONTIERS OF CRITICISM’—A CRITICAL SUMMARY

I. A. Richards (1893–1979)

I. A. RICHARDS AS A CRITIC; RICHARDS AND COLERIDGE; THE POSITION OF POETRY IN RELATION TO SCIENCE; I. A. RICHARDS’ CRITICAL PRINCIPLES; RICHARDS’ PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY OF VALUE; THE NATURE OF POETRY; THE VALUE OF POETRY; SOME VIEWS OF RICHARDS DISCUSSED; I. A. RICHARDS AS A CRITIC; I. A. RICHARDS—AN ESTIMATE

F.R. Leavis (1895–1978)

F.R. LEAVIS AS A CRITIC; ELIOT’S INFLUENCE ON LEAVIS; LEAVIS’ CONCEPT OF TRADITION; LEAVIS’ COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO LITERATURE; LEAVIS’ CRITICAL PRINCIPLES; LEAVIS’ IDEAL OF A GOOD CRITIC; LEAVIS’ JUDICIAL CRITICISM; LEAVIS’ ACHIEVEMENT AS A CRITIC

The New Critics and the Chicago Critics

THE NEW CRITICISM; DECLINE OF ITS INFLUENCE; ROLE OF T.S. ELIOT; ROLE OF I.A. RICHARDS; ROLE OF ALLEN TATE AND J.C. RANSOM; ROLE OF R.P. BLACKMUR AND CLEANTH BROOKS; MASTER-METAPHORS OF THE NEW CRITICS; ACHIEVEMENT OF THE NEW CRITICS; SHORTCOMINGS OF NEW CRITICISM; CRITICISM BY THE CHICAGO-SCHOOL OF CRITICS OR THE NEO-ARISTOTELIANS; ITS ACHIEVEMENTS; THE CHICAGO CRITICS OR THE NEO-ARISTOTELIANS

Newer than New

STYLISTICS; STRUCTURALISM; DECONSTRUCTION; MARXIST CRITICISM; PSYCHO-ANALYTIC CRITICISM; READER-RESPONSE THEORY; FEMINIST CRITICISM; NEW HISTORICISM

Some Critical Problems and Statements Explained

ART IS THE IMITATION OF LIFE; THE THEORY OF CATHARSIS; “WE MUST ENJOY BEFORE WE CAN CRITICIZE”; “WE STAND IN NEED OF TRAINING FOR ENJOYMENT.”; “DELIGHT IS THE CHIEF, IF NOT THE ONLY, END OF POETRY.” “POETRY SHOULD SURPRISE US BY A FINE EXCESS.”; “A POETRY OF REVOLT AGAINST MORAL IDEAS IS A POETRY OF REVOLT AGAINST LIFE.”; “WE HATE POETRY THAT HAS A PALPABLE DESIGN UPON US.”; REALISM IS NOT A PHOTOGRAPHIC PRESENTATION OF LIFE.; “THE PROGRESS OF AN ARTIST IS A CONTINUAL SELF-SACRIFICE, A CONSTANT EXTINCTION OF PERSONALITY.”; LITERARY CRITICISM CONSIDERED AS SCIENCE; “THE ONLY WAY OF EXPRESSING EMOTION IN THE FORM OF ART IS BY FINDING AN ‘OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVE.’”; “ART MOVES FROM STAGE TO STAGE BY TWO OPPOSING PATHS: THE WAY OF CONSTRUCTIVE ACCEPTANCE AND THE WAY OF REVOLT.”; “CRITICISM IS THE ENDEAVOUR TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN EXPERIENCES AND EVALUATE THEM.”; “THE LIFE AND SOUL OF TRAGEDY IS THE PLOT.”; “CLASSICISM IS HEALTH AND ROMANTICISM IS DISEASE.”; “A LIVING CHARACTER IS NOT NECESSARILY TRUE TO LIFE.”; “TO SET UP AS A CRITIC IS TO SET UP AS A JUDGE OF VALUES.”; INTERPRETATIVE AND JUDICIAL CRITICISM CONSIDERED; OBSCURITY IN POETRY; SYMBOLIST MOVEMENT IN ENGLISH POETRY; PURE POETRY; ALL CRITICISM IS ESSENTIALLY PERSONAL; “THE GOOD CRITIC IS HE WHO RELATES THE ADVENTURES OF HIS SOUL AMONG MASTERPIECES.”; A POEM OF ANY LENGTH NEITHER CAN BE, NOR OUGHT TO BE, ALL POETRY; “GREAT LITERATURE IS SIMPLY LANGUAGE CHARGED WITH MEANING TO THE UTMOST POSSIBLE DEGREE.”

Glossary

Bibliography