History of Modern Literary Criticism (Volume 7)

Author: René Wellek (USA)
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Features: René Wellek's History of Modern Literary Criticism is the largest and most authoritative work in this academic field to date. It adopts the theoretical framework of New Criticism, Russian Formalism, and I.A. Richards' aesthetics to systematically trace the development of Western literary criticism over the past two centuries. At the same time, Wellek emphasizes the portraiture of critics and case studies, delving deeply into each specific issue, avoiding hasty judgments and superficial generalizations. His experience and lessons in the methodology of critical history also hold valuable insights for us. Readers of these two volumes will notice differences in the organization and referencing formats of the chapters. Some chapters provide extensive citations, with each quoted sentence or phrase offering page numbers from the original books or journals. However, other chapters sometimes mention the works or articles discussed and commented on in less specific terms. The reason for this inconsistency is quite simple. In 1986, the author was involved in an accident and became immobilized. Since then, he has been confined to bed, and to this day, he has been unable to visit the Yale University Library regularly. I was forced to rely on the assistance of several secretaries, primarily students connected with Yale. They provided books and journals, recorded my dictations, transcribed them, and then printed the text for my review. I checked these drafts, made necessary revisions, and ensured they were compiled in the correct order to form the final manuscript. This explanation also serves as an apology for the shortcomings in the last two volumes, and all flaws will ultimately be my responsibility.