文学批评
2004-11
高等教育出版社
Charles E. Bressler
319
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Early in Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn， we learn about Tom Sawyers gang and his "deep laid" plans， for Tom and his inner circleof friends dedicate one memorable occasion to working out such details: thename of the gang， its objectives， its general line of business——its modusoperandi. But there are problems， namely， problems of interpretation. Afterall， not everybody defines "gang" the same way. These interpretive prob-lems are not insurmountable， so we discover， but they are real， at least for afew enchanted moments in the narrative.
The third edition of Literary Criticism：An Introduction to Theory and Practiceby Charles E. Bressler presents the eleven basicschools of twentieth-century literary theory andcriticism in their historical and philosophicalcontexts. Unlike other introduction to literarycriticism， this text explores the philosophicalassumptions of each school of criticism， providesa clear methodology for writing essays according to each schools beliefs and tenets， andfeatures accessible student-generated sample essays.
Forewordix .To the Readerxii1 Defining Criticism， Theory， and Literature1Eavesdropping on a Literature Classroom1Can a Text Have More Than One Interpretation?How to Become a Literary Critic3What Is Literary Criticism?4What Is Literary Theory?6Making Meaning from Text7The Reading Process and Literary Theory8What Is Literature?10Literary Theory and the Definition of Literature12The Function of Literature and Literary Theory13Beginning the Formal Study of Literary Theory14Further Reading152 A Historical Survey of Literary Criticism16Introduction16Plato (ca. 427-347 s.c.)16Aristotle (384-322 s.c.)18Horace (65-8 B.c.)21Longinus (First Century A.D.)22Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)23Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)24John Dryden (1631-1700)24Alexander Pope (1688-1744)25William Wordsworth (1770-1850)26Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893)29Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)30Henry James (1843-1916)32Modem Literary Criticism34Further Reading353 New Criticism37Introduction37Historical Development39Assumptions42Methodology45Questions for Analysis48Sample Essay48Further Reading49Web Sites for Exploration49Student Essay:Dale Schuurman， Keatss "To Autumn":Verses of Praise for a Malicious Season?504 Reader-Response Criticism. 55Introduction55Historical Development57Assumptions61Methodology63Questions for Analysis69Sample Essay70Further Reading70Web Sites for Exploration71Student Essay:Jennifer Douglas， "Ethan Brands" Challenge to Me725 Structuralism75Introduction75Historical Development76Assumptions82Methodologies84Questions for Analysis89Sample Essay89Further Reading90Web Sites for Exploration90Student Essay:Conie Krause， Will the Real Walter Mitty Please Wake Up:A Structuralists View of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"916 Deconstruction94Structuralism and Poststructuralism: Two Views of the World94Modernity96Poststructuralism or Postmodernism98Historical Development100Assumptions104Methodology107American Deconstructors113Questions for Analysis114Sample Essay114Further Reading115Web Sites for Exploration115Student Essay:Jennifer Douglas， Deconstructing a "Real" House1167 Psychoanalytic Criticism119Introduction119Historical Development121Assumptions132Methodologies133Questions for Analysis135Sample Essay136Further Reading136Web Sites for Exploration137Student Essay:David Johnson， A Psychoanalytic Approach to Poes "The Cityin the Sea"1378 Feminism142Introduction142Historical Development144Assumptions153Methodology154Questions for Analysis156Sample Essay156Further Reading157Web Sites for Exploration157Student Essay:Lori Huth， Throwing Off the Yoke: "Rip Van Winkle"and Women1589 Marxism161Introduction161Historical Development162Assumptions170Methodology172Questions for Analysis173Sample Essay174Further Reading174Web Sites for Exploration175Student Essay:Juanita Wolfe， Baking Bread for the Bourgeoisie ..17510 Cultural Poetics179or New HistoricismIntroduction179Historical Development181Assumptions185Methodology188Questions for Textual Analysis190Questions for Analysis191Sample Essay191Further Reading191Web Sites for Exploration192Student Essay:Krista Adlhock， Hawthornes Understanding of Historyin "The Maypole of Merry Mount"19311 Cultural Studies197Introduction197Postcolonialism: "The Empire Writes Back"199Historical Development of Postcolonialism200Assumptions of Postcolonialist Theory202Methodology204Questions for Analysis205Postcolonialism and African American Criticism205Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminism208Sample Essay209Further Reading209Web Sites for Exploration210Student Essay:Wendy Rader， "The Gentlemen of the Jungle":Or Are They Beasts?211Literary Selections214John Keats， "To Autumn"214Nathaniel Hawthorne， "Ethan Brand"215James Thurber， "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"228Sandra Cisneros， "The House on Mango Street"232Edgar Allan Poe， "The City in the Sea"233Washington Irving， "Rip Van Winkle"235Tony Harrison， "Marked with D."248Nathaniel Hawthorne， "The Maypole of Merry Mount" 248Jomo Kenyatta， "The Gentlemen of the Jungle"256Glossary260References289Credits312Credits312Index314
HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE （1828-1893）Wordsworths romanticism, with its stress on intuition as a guide to learningultimate truth and its belief that emotions and the imagination form the coreof poetrys content, dominated literature and literary criticism throughoutthe first three decades of the nineteenth century, and its influence still contin-ues today. With the rise of the Victorian era in the 1830s, reason,, science, anda sense of historical determinism began to supplant Romantic thought. Thegrowing sense of historical and scientific determinism finally found its au-thoritative voice and culminating influence in Charles Darwin and his textOn the Origin of Species, published in 1859. Humankind was now demysti-fied, for we finally knew our origins and understood our physiological de-velopment; science, it seemed, had provided us with the key to our past andan understanding of the present, and would help us determine our future ifwe relied on the scientific method in all our human endeavors.Sciences methodology, its philosophical assumptions, and its practicalapplications found an admiring adherent and a strong voice in French histo-rian and literary critic Hippolyte Taine. Born in Vouziers, France, HippolyteTaine was a brilliant but unorthodox student at the Ircole NormaleSuprrieure in Paris. After finishing his formal education, he taught in vari-ous schools throughout France, continuing his investigations in both aesthet-ics and history. During the 1850s, he published various philosophical andaesthetic treatises, but his chief contribution to literary criticism and historyis The History of English Literature, published in 1863. In this work, Taine crys-tallizes what is now known as the historical approach to literary analysis.In the introduction to The History of English Literature, Taine uses a scien-tific simile to explain his approach to literary criticism.
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