This series delves into the multifaceted world of literary criticism, tracing its evolution and diverse methodologies. It offers insightful explorations of key theoretical frameworks and their impact on how we interpret literature. Readers will gain a comprehensive understanding of major critical schools of thought and their application to various texts. This collection serves as an essential resource for anyone seeking to deepen their knowledge of literary theory and analysis.
This work offers an in-depth examination of the scholarship and criticism surrounding one of America's most acclaimed writers. It explores various interpretations and analyses, highlighting significant themes and contributions to literature. The book serves as a valuable resource for understanding the complexities of the author's work and the impact it has had on American literature and culture.
The Austrian writer Robert Musil ranks among the foremost novelists of the 20th century. Despite a series of lesser but well-regarded shorter works, his literary reputation rests almost entirely on his novel Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The Man without Qualities), a life-work in the truest sense, which became the focus of all his energies and thinking from 1924 until his death in 1942. This study analyzes the principal trends in scholarship on the novel from the 1960s to the present. It contrasts earlier criticism, which foregrounded the eponymous central character's search for identity against the background of subject theory or mysticism, with more recent criticism, whichhas focused on aesthetic and ethical approaches to the novel within the broader context of theories of value. A focal chapter in the study centers on the persistent difficulty critics have encountered with the idea of "Eigenschaftslosigkeit," the state of being without qualities named in the novel's title.Tim Mehigan is Associate Professor of German and Head of the Department of Germanic Studies and Russian at the University of Melbourne.Table of ContentsIntroductionEarly Philology and Existentialst ReadingsFrom Social Criticism to Cultural CritiquePsychological and Psychoanalytical ReadingsAesthetic ReadingsThe Order of Ethical ReadingsThe Information of CommunicationEditions of Der Mann ohne EigenschaftenMusil BibliographiesWorks ConsultedIndex
Traces Hemingway's critical fortunes over the ninety years of his prominence, telling us something about what we value in literature and why scholarly reputations rise and fall.
Examines the major divisions in criticism of this major African American writer, paying particular attention to the way each critical period defines Baldwin and his work for its own purposes.
"Literary critics, too, have maintained their interest in Werther. The book's first appearance immediately provoked a lively debate about its aesthetic and moral implications. Then, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, critics increasingly explored its narrative strategies, its relation to various literary movements, its autobiographical elements, its depiction of an individual subjectivity, its social criticism, and its role in constructing a German national consciousness. Hundreds of subsequent critics have continued these discussions and added topics that reflect such developments as semiotics and gender studies. In fact, the history of Werther's critical reception largely mirrors the history of literary criticism in the last 230 years. Goethe's Werther and the Critics traces this development, demonstrating how changing notions of both aesthetics and the role of literary criticism have influenced perceptions of this great work."--BOOK JACKET.
Controversies surrounding Edgar Allan Poe's character and literary contributions have sparked extensive debate among scholars. Issues such as his alleged alcoholism, drug use, and attitudes toward race and gender are examined alongside the impact of psychoanalytic criticism and the dismissal by New Critics. This book explores how these controversies affect the understanding of Poe's work and its adaptations across various media. It serves as a valuable resource for both seasoned Poe scholars and newcomers, offering insights into the complexities of his literary legacy.
"Schnitzler, one of the most prolific Austrian writers of the twentieth century, ruthlessly dissected his society's erotic posturing and phobias about sex and death. This book examines Schnitzler's reception up to 2000, beginning with the journalistic reception of the early plays. Before being suspended by a decade of Nazism, criticism in the 1920s and 1930s emphasized Schnitzler's determinism and decadence. Not until the early sixties was humanist scholarship able to challenge this verdict by pointing out Schnitzler's ethical indictment of impressionism in the late novellas. During the same period, Schnitzler, whom Freud considered his literary "Doppelganger," was often subjected to Freudian psychoanalytical criticism; but by the eighties, scholarship was citing his own thoroughgoing objections to such categories. Since the seventies, Schnitzler's remonstrance toward the Austrian establishment has been examined by social historians and feminist critics alike, and the recently completed ten-volume edition of Schnitzler's diary has met with vibrant interest."--BOOK JACKET
An Honest Man and a Good Writer
The book delves into the evolving critical landscape surrounding a prominent African American writer, highlighting how different eras interpret and redefine his contributions to literature. It explores the major divisions in criticism, illustrating how each period shapes its understanding of the writer's significance and the themes present in his work. Through this examination, the text reveals the complexities of Baldwin's legacy and the varying perspectives that have emerged over time.
The story of the surprisingly fluctuating critical reputation of one of the great writers of the English language.