Issues and Perspectives

Author: Marc Angenot, Jean Bessière, Dominique Fourcade, Maya Kuschna
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-02-01
Features: This is an authoritative work on the development and current state of literary theory in the 20th century. The book was conceived and discussed by the Theoretical Committee of the International Comparative Literature Association and collectively written by scholars and experts from multiple countries. It aims to present the current state of debate and research in the field of literary theory internationally, introduce various perspectives, elucidate diverse methods and theories, identify their epistemological premises, and, while focusing on the present state of various theoretical proposals, look ahead to their prospects. It examines the literary field and literary objects from overall and multiple perspectives. The book is divided into four parts: 1. Forms and Identification of Literary Facts; 2. Literary Systems; 3. Text and Literary Communication; 4. Channels and Methods of Criticism. Each part adopts a comprehensive approach. Part 1 reviews several major literary forms and their identification processes, showcasing efforts to examine literary objects from either their origins or their overall aspects. The second part examines literature from interdisciplinary multiple perspectives and relationships, including genre, history and literature, society and literature, cross-linguistic holism, cross-cultural studies, and literature, to define and explore literary objects and the literary field from both internal and external viewpoints. The third part focuses on the theoretical approaches to text and literary communication, such as rhetoric, pragmatics, speech analysis, narratology, subject theory, and reception theory. The fourth part explores the concept of "interpretation" from two aspects: "how to interpret literature" and "which parts of the literary object need interpretation," examining the possibilities, reliability, or characteristics of interpretation. It also discusses various epistemological issues from the perspective of the contemporary context of social sciences and humanities, as well as the prospects for the effectiveness of literary theory and methodology. This book meets the needs of the research community and higher education institutions for the teaching and study of contemporary literary theory, as well as the practical needs of writers and readers who are interested in literary research and literary works.