|
|
|
|
LITS2306 HISTORY OF
CRITICISM
2007-2008
MODULE ONE: FROM CLASSICISM TO NEO-CLASSICISM
|
|
WEEK ONE: INTRODUCTION
|
|
REQUIRED READINGS |
LECTURE 1 |
|
Notes:
|
|
LECTURE 2 |
|
Notes:
|
|
TUTORIAL |
|
|
|
RECOMMENDED READINGS1 |
- M. H. Abrams The Mirror and the Lamp:
Ch. 1 "Introduction: Orientation of Critical Theories" (3-29):
- "Mimetic
Theories" (8-14)
- "Pragmatic
Theories" (14-21)
- "Expressive Theories" (21-26)
- "Objective
Theories" (26-29)
|
|
PHILWEB RESOURCES |
|
|
WEEK TWO: CLASSICAL THOUGHT 1:
RHETORIC v. PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY
|
|
REQUIRED READINGS |
LECTURE 1 |
- Gorgias "From Encomium of Helen" (pp. 30-33 in Leitch)2
- Plato
The Republic
[c.370 BCE]3
|
Summaries:
|
|
LECTURE 2 |
|
Summaries:
|
|
TUTORIAL4 |
- Plato The Republic
[c.370BCE]: Book X
(pp.31-35 in
Adams; pp. 67-80 in
Leitch)
|
Summaries:
- see the section devoted to Book X in my summary of The Republic above (please
print and bring to class).
|
|
RECOMMENDED READINGS |
-
Plato's Philosophy:
- Janaway, Christopher. "Ancient Greek Philosophy I: the
Pre-Socratics and Plato." Philosophy: a Guide Through the Subject.
Ed. A. C. Grayling.
Oxford: OUP, 1995. 336-397.
-
Plato's Literary Theory:
-
M. H. Abrams The Mirror and the Lamp: Ch. 2 "Imitation and the Mirror":
-
Richard Harland Literary Theory: from
Plato to Barthes:
-
Ferrari, G. R. F. "Plato and Poetry." Classical Criticism.
Ed. George A. Kennedy. Vol. 1 of of Cambridge History of Literary Criticism.
Cambridge: CUP, 1989. 92-148.
|
|
PHILWEB RESOURCES |
|
|
WEEK THREE: CLASSICAL THOUGHT
2: ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY
|
|
REQUIRED READINGS |
LECTURE 15 |
- Aristotle [all readings c. 335 - c.320 BCE]
-
Physics:
The Four
Causes (see excerpt "Four Types of Explanation," pp. 301-303 in Cottingham)
-
Categories
(see excerpt "Individual Substance," pp. 70-74 in Cottingham)
-
Posterior Analytics
(see excerpt "Demonstrative Knowledge and its Starting-points," pp. 19-22 in Cottingham)
-
De
Anima (see excerpt "Soul and Body, Form and Matter," pp. 134-138 in Cottingham)
|
Summaries:
|
|
LECTURE 2 |
|
Summaries:
|
|
TUTORIAL6 |
- Aristotle Poetics (Butcher translation pp. 50-66 in Adams;
Janko translation pp. 90-117 in Leitch)
|
Summaries:
Notes:
|
|
RECOMMENDED READINGS |
|
|
PHILWEB RESOURCES |
|
|
WEEK FOUR: LATE MEDIEVAL /
RENAISSANCE LITERARY THEORY: THE PLATONIC LEGACY
|
|
REQUIRED READINGS |
LECTURE 17 |
- Aquinas
-
Summa Theologica
[1256-1272]: "From The Nature and Domain of Sacred
Doctrine": 9th and 10th articles (pp.117-119 in Adams; pp. 243-246
in Leitch)
- Dante
|
Summaries:
|
|
LECTURE 2 |
- Sir Philip Sidney
An Apology for Poetry [1595] (pp. 143-162
in Adams; pp. 326-362 in Leitch): read
- from "Now then we go to the most important
imputations laid to the poor poets" (p.154) to " . . . Plato
banished them out of his commonwealth." (p.154);
- from "Among the Romans a poet was called vates
. . ." (p.144) to " . . . a principal recommendation."
(p.146);
- from "Poesy therefore is an art . . ."
(p.146) to " . . . have a most just title to be princes over the
rest." (p.147); and
- from "Wherein we can show the poet’s nobleness .
. ." (p.147) to " . . . Psalm of Mercy well testifieth"
(p.151).
|
Summaries:
|
|
TUTORIAL8 |
|
|
|
RECOMMENDED READINGS |
|
|
PHILWEB RESOURCES |
|
|
WEEK FIVE: EARLY MODERN THOUGHT:
RATIONALISM vs EMPIRICISM
|
|
REQUIRED READINGS |
LECTURE 1 |
-
René Descartes
Meditations on First Philosophy [1641]:
- Meditations I and II (see extract entitled "New Foundations for Knowledge," pp. 22-26 in Cottingham)
- Meditations II and VI (see extract entitled "The Incorporeal Mind," pp. 145-152 in Cottingham)
|
Summaries:
|
|
LECTURE 2 |
- John Locke
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
[1690]:
- Book I: Chs. 1 and 2 (see extract entitled "The Senses as the Basis of Knowledge," pp. 26-32
in Cottingham)
- Book II: Ch. 8 (see extract entitled "Qualities and Ideas," pp. 80-85 in Cottingham)
- Book II: Ch. 27: (see extract entitled "The Self and Consciousness," pp. 187-192 in Cottingham)
|
Summaries:
|
|
TUTORIAL |
- Further discussion of the differences between
rationalism and empiricism covered in the lectures
|
Summaries:
- Please bring the lecture notes (above) to the tutorial
|
|
RECOMMENDED READINGS |
- Scruton, Roger. "Modern Philosophy I: the Rationalists and
Kant." Philosophy: a Guide Through the Subject.
Oxford: OUP, 1995. 440-483.
- Grayling, A. C. "Modern Philosophy II: the Empiricists."
Philosophy: a Guide Through the Subject.
Oxford: OUP, 1995. 484-544.
|
|
PHILWEB RESOURCES |
|
|
WEEK SIX: NEO-CLASSICAL
LITERARY THEORY: THE ARISTOTELIAN LEGACY
|
|
REQUIRED READINGS |
LECTURE 1 |
- Alexander Pope
An Essay on Criticism
[1711] (pp. 274-282 in Adams; pp. 441-458 in Leitch):
read
- Comments on Representation: ll. 68-200 and ll.289-383
- Comments on the Reader: ll.1-67, 201-288; and 384-643
|
Summaries:
|
|
LECTURE 2 |
- Samuel Johnson
- Rambler 4 [March 31, 1750]:
"On Fiction" (pp. 317-319 in Adams;
pp. 462-466 in Leitch)
- "From
The History of Rasselas:
Chapter X"
[1759] (pp. 319-320 in Adams; pp.
466-467 in Leitch)
- "From
Preface to Shakespeare" [1765] (pp. 320-327 in
Adams; pp. 468-480 in Leitch)
|
Summaries:
|
|
TUTORIAL |
- Discussion of the Term Paper
|
|
|
RECOMMENDED READINGS |
- Richard Harland Literary Theory: from Plato to
Barthes:
- Ch. 3 "The Rise and Fall of Neoclassicism":
- "French Neoclassical Theory" (pp. 41-45)
- "The British Version of Neoclassicism"
(pp. 45-49)
|
|
PHILWEB RESOURCES |
|
|
FOOTNOTES
|
-
All recommended
readings ought to be found in the Main Library.
Remember: the word 'recommended' means that you don't have
to read them but you would be advised to do so.
-
This is a brief example of the work of the Sophists to whom
Plato was so opposed. We will also briefly discuss the
so-called 'Pre-Socratics' and the term 'rhetoric.'
- The goal of the lectures
this week is not to become an expert on every aspect of
Plato's philosophy but to get a broad overview of his
distinction between philosophy and rhetoric by sorting out
his thoughts on the nature of reality (his ontology and
cosmology), human identity (the self), knowledge
(epistemology) and logic (the dialectic). To this
ends, we will not read
all of The Republic but will zero in on selected
parts where these issues are highlighted (we will also
discuss Plato's views on language by referring to two of his
other dialogues "Cratylus" and "Phaedrus"). The passages
from The Republic which are
very important for our purposes are the following ones (the
chapter headings are based on Francis MacDonald Cornford's translation which I prefer
to use and several copies of which are to be found in the
Main Library):
- Ch. XIII "The Three Parts of the
Soul"
- Ch. XIV "The Virtues in the Individual"
- Ch. XIX "Definition of the Philosopher"
- Ch. XXI "Why the Philosophic Nature
is Useless or Corrupted in Existing Society"
- Ch. XXII "A Philosophic Ruler is not
an Impossibility"
- Ch. XXIII "The Good as the Highest
Object of Knowledge"
- Ch. XXIV "Four Stages of Cognition:
the Line"
- Ch. XXV "The Allegory of the Cave"
- Ch. XXVII "Dialectic"
-
In the
tutorial this week, we will focus on how
Plato's views on reality, the self and knowledge lead to
his desire to ban literature from his ideal state by
discussing the following chapters of the Cornford translation (the last three of which are often
referred to collectively as Book X):
- As with Plato, the goal of the lectures
this week is not to become an expert on every facet of
Aristotle's thought. The first four readings (Lecture
1) are designed to give you a broad overview
of how his views diverge from Plato's on the nature of
reality ("Physics" and "Categories"), knowledge ("Posterior
Analytics"), and human identity ("De Anima").
In Lecture 2, we will then turn our attention to his views
on language and logic (I will refer to his ) before focusing
more specifically on Aristotle's "Rhetoric" and the
implications thereof for his views on literature.
- In the tutorial this week, we will focus
on Aristotle's Poetics, the first known attempt to
provide a science of criticism. Please print up the
summary and bring to class as we may refer to passages from
it.
- In the lectures, this week, we will
focus on Plato's legacy for literary theory. We will
study, firstly, how St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante in the late
Middle Ages responded to Plato's epistemological reason for
banning poetry from his ideal state (i.e. his claim that
poetry is at a third remove from the truth); secondly, we
discuss how Sir Philip Sidney responds to Plato's charge
that poetry has a bad moral impact on readers (his second
reason for banning poetry).
- In the tutorial this week, by contrast
to the lectures, we will continue to read and discuss (my
notes on) Aristotle's Poetics. We will also,
time permitting, discuss his Rhetoric, not least its
importance for an understanding of the Poetics.
- You may focus on only
those meditations by Descartes listed, though it might not
hurt to read as much as you can of the rest.
- Similarly, with regard to Locke, you
may focus on only those chapters of Books I
and II which are listed. Of course, by all means
please read the rest if you would like.
|
END OF MODULE ONE
|
