This study has a double focus: in the first place, it seeks to chart the parallel re-evaluation of both formalism and psychology in twentieth-century literary theory by using the work and career of the French literary critic, Charles Mauron (1899–1966) as a scaffolding. Using a structure of biography and literary history, it investigates Mauron's rather odd position, both inside and outside two different critical contexts, the French and the English, a position that makes his work a particularly revealing reflection of the diverse critical trends and tensions of our age. The second focus of this study is suggested in the tension in Mauron's work created by his need to objectivise the subjective. The recent conflicts between continental and British criticism or, more generally, between the new formalism (represented by structuralism and semiotics) and the liberal humanist tradition raise an important contemporary issue prefigured in Mauron. The broader context of his work is that of the eternal theoretical debate regarding the designation of literary criticism as an objective or a subjective activity, as a science or as the ultimate human and humane act.
Les mer
Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. The Critical Formation: Science, Formalism, and Aesthetic Contemplation: 1. Early roots: science, Bloomsbury, and Roger Fry; 2. The attraction of formalism; 3. Art and science; 4. Toward psychocritique: from 'spiritual' to 'psychological'; Part II. Psychoanalysis and Literary Criticism: 5. Scientific psychology and art; 6. Psychoanalysis and psychocritique; 7. Psychocritique: formalism, science, and the value of problems; 8. Psychocritique and the modern French critical context; Conclusion; Appendixes; Notes; Index.
Les mer
This work tackles the eternal theoretical debate regarding the designation of literary criticism as an objective or subjective activity, a science or the ultimate human and humane act.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780521027953
Publisert
2006-11-02
Utgiver
Vendor
Cambridge University Press
Vekt
350 gr
Høyde
214 mm
Bredde
137 mm
Dybde
15 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
268

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