Literary Criticism Theory: From Plato to Now

Author: [British] Cullend
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: The book presented to the readers before you is a distinctive selection of Western literary theory. To help you better understand the entire book and each excerpt, the author will first discuss the characteristics of this book, then briefly outline the historical context of Western literary theory, with a focus on the so-called "postmodern period" after the 1960s, which readers may be less familiar with. Each of the five parts of the book raises fundamental questions about literature and its background, which can be summarized as follows:
1. Does literature point to or correspond to some external reality? What type of "truth" does literature pursue?
2. What kind of psychological processes of the author or reader can contribute to the production of a literary text?
3. To what extent is a text "autonomous"? What are the formal and structural characteristics of a text? Is the structure of a text definite or indeterminate?
4. Is literature a part of history? Can we recognize what kind of social, economic, geographical, and other historical processes determine or constrain the production of literary texts?
5. Is literature primarily a form of moral experience? Do the author's moral beliefs or ideology (conscious or unconscious) determine the nature of their creation?