英语专业《文学批评》笔记

英语专业《文学批评》笔记

Plato’s and Aristotle’s View: Art is Essentially Mimesis

Art was potentially dangerous for several reasons:

A.) Art was essentially deceptive.

B.) Art was mainly concerned with sensual pleasure.

C.) Further, Art was psychologically de-stabilizing. (for the individual) (Eth., Ps.)

D.) Art leads to immorality. (Eth.)

E.) Art was politically dangerous. (threat to the common good) (Po. Ps.)

Art was not potentially dangerous for several reasons:

A.) (Good) Art was essentially truthful. (Ep.)

B.) Art was mainly concerned with sensual pleasure, and that’s a Good thing. (M, Ep., Eth.)

C.) Art was psychologically healthy (for the individual) (Eth., Ps.)

D.) Art leads to moral knowledge. (Eth.)

E.) Art was politically necessary and healthy. (Po. Ps.)

Example: from The Elder Edda《古埃达》,

"Words of the High One"

The coward believes he will live forever

If he holds back in the battle.

But in old age he shall have no peace

Though spears have spared his limbs.

Cattle die, kindred die,

Every man is mortal:

But I know one thing that never dies,

The glory of the great deed.

(The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems from the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. 13th century.)

ANALYZE, LITERAL MEANING (paraphrase):

This excerpt tells us that only cowards would think to save their own lives rather than fight the battle to the end. But surviving thus, the coward will not have any piece of mind; he'll be tormented right into old age.

It's better to die, since every living thing is mortal anyway. But the great deed is immortal. So, it's better to die in battle and possibly achieve great deeds rather than preserve mortal life.

INTERPRET, SYMBOLIC MEANING

The battle may be symbolic of life itself. Just living life may be a battle but, this poet tells us, only cowards choose to turn their back on it. If we let life pass us by and not seize the moment then we'll have nothing in old age but regrets. Better to

perform the ‘great deeds’ without fear of loss.

Life and death also equated with success and failure, loving and losing, sadness and happiness etc.

QUESTION

What are ‘great deeds’? Personally, culturally, historically?

Textual Scholarship/Lower Criticism: A Prerequisite to Criticism

定义：A branch of literary criticism that is primarily concerned with the identification and removal of transcription(抄写) errors in the texts of manuscripts.

Goal: to establish the authentic text/ to establish the history of a text in terms of its creation and its publishing history.

Given a manuscript copy, several or many copies, but not the original document, the textual critic seeks to reconstruct the original text(the autograph) as closely as possible

Two Typles of Traditional Approaches

1. Historical-Biographical(历史传记)Approach

• a reflection of its author's/characters' life and times

•are situated in specific historical and biographical contexts from which they are generated

Mencius :"知人论世"He can size up people by his simple devices (e.g. through an interview) and is so alive to the changes about him that he proves to be a good commentator on the current situation.

Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828 –1893)

• a French critic and historian

•three-pronged approach to the contextual study of a work of art

•member of L'Académie française (French Academy)

John Milton's blindness and "On His Blindness"

The knowledge of the author's life experiences can help to understand an clarify some factual reference and allusions in literary works, thereby enriching a reader's appreciation for that author's work.

•So the author's letter, diaries, and essays were combed for evidence of authorial intentions in writing

•Closely connected with the biographical approach is the approach to literature with the reference with the historical and socail context in which the authors had lived.

2. Moral-Philosophical(道德哲学)Approach

concerns the relationship of the work and the universe today--"What kind of truth does this work reveal to us?"