Literature, Theory, and Common Sense /
Compagnon, Antoine
Literature, Theory, and Common Sense / Antoine Compagnon. - 1 online resource (232 p.) - New French Thought Series ; 5 .
Frontmatter -- Contents -- INTRODUCTION What Remains of Our Loves? -- CHAPTER 1 Literature -- CHAPTER 2 The Author -- CHAPTER 3 The World -- CHAPTER 4 The Reader -- CHAPTER 5 Style -- CHAPTER 6 History -- CHAPTER 7 Value -- CONCLUSION The Theoretical Adventure -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
An engaging introduction to contemporary debates in literary theoryIn the late twentieth century, the common sense approach to literature was deemed naïve. Roland Barthes proclaimed the death of the author, and Hillis Miller declared that all interpretation is theoretical. In many a literature department, graduate students spent far more time on Derrida and Foucault than on Shakespeare and Milton. Despite this, common sense approaches to literature—including the belief that literature represents reality and authorial intentions matter—have resisted theory with tenacity. As a result, argues Antoine Compagnon, theorists have gone to extremes, boxed themselves into paradoxes, and distanced others from their ideas. Eloquently assessing the accomplishments and failings of literary theory, Compagnon ultimately defends the methods and goals of a theoretical commitment tempered by the wisdom of common sense.The book is organized not by school of thought but around seven central questions: literariness, the author, the world, the reader, style, history, and value. What makes a work literature? Does fiction imitate reality? Is the reader present in the text? What constitutes style? Is the context in which a work is written important to its apprehension? Are literary values universal?As he examines how theory has wrestled these themes, Compagnon establishes not a simple middle-ground but a state of productive tension between high theory and common sense. The result is a book that will be met with both controversy and sighs of relief.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780691268347
10.1515/9780691268347 doi
Criticism.
French literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc.
Literature--Philosophy.
LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory.
Adverb. Allegory. Author function. Author. Axiom. Bibliography. Characterization. Collective consciousness. Concept. Conformity. Conscience. Consciousness. Contingency (philosophy). Critical consciousness. Cultural history. Curriculum. Deontological ethics. Dialectic. Doctrine. Edition (book). Elucidation. Exegesis. Exemplification. Experimental literature. Explanation. F. R. Leavis. Generative grammar. Hermeneutic circle. Historical sociology. Idiolect. Idiom. Intention. Intentionality. Lingua franca. Linguistic prescription. Linguistic relativity. Literariness. Literary criticism. Literary element. Literary language. Literary theory. Literature. Logic. Modernism. Monograph. Morality. Narrative logic. Oral literature. Persuasion. Phenomenology (philosophy). Philology. Philosophy of language. Poetry. Pronoun. Referent. Sociology of literature. Speech act. Subjectivism. Syntagma (linguistics). Text (literary theory). The Textbooks. Theory of Literature. Theory. Universality (philosophy). Ut pictura poesis. V. Value judgment. What Is Literature?. World literature. Writing.
801
Literature, Theory, and Common Sense / Antoine Compagnon. - 1 online resource (232 p.) - New French Thought Series ; 5 .
Frontmatter -- Contents -- INTRODUCTION What Remains of Our Loves? -- CHAPTER 1 Literature -- CHAPTER 2 The Author -- CHAPTER 3 The World -- CHAPTER 4 The Reader -- CHAPTER 5 Style -- CHAPTER 6 History -- CHAPTER 7 Value -- CONCLUSION The Theoretical Adventure -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
An engaging introduction to contemporary debates in literary theoryIn the late twentieth century, the common sense approach to literature was deemed naïve. Roland Barthes proclaimed the death of the author, and Hillis Miller declared that all interpretation is theoretical. In many a literature department, graduate students spent far more time on Derrida and Foucault than on Shakespeare and Milton. Despite this, common sense approaches to literature—including the belief that literature represents reality and authorial intentions matter—have resisted theory with tenacity. As a result, argues Antoine Compagnon, theorists have gone to extremes, boxed themselves into paradoxes, and distanced others from their ideas. Eloquently assessing the accomplishments and failings of literary theory, Compagnon ultimately defends the methods and goals of a theoretical commitment tempered by the wisdom of common sense.The book is organized not by school of thought but around seven central questions: literariness, the author, the world, the reader, style, history, and value. What makes a work literature? Does fiction imitate reality? Is the reader present in the text? What constitutes style? Is the context in which a work is written important to its apprehension? Are literary values universal?As he examines how theory has wrestled these themes, Compagnon establishes not a simple middle-ground but a state of productive tension between high theory and common sense. The result is a book that will be met with both controversy and sighs of relief.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780691268347
10.1515/9780691268347 doi
Criticism.
French literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc.
Literature--Philosophy.
LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory.
Adverb. Allegory. Author function. Author. Axiom. Bibliography. Characterization. Collective consciousness. Concept. Conformity. Conscience. Consciousness. Contingency (philosophy). Critical consciousness. Cultural history. Curriculum. Deontological ethics. Dialectic. Doctrine. Edition (book). Elucidation. Exegesis. Exemplification. Experimental literature. Explanation. F. R. Leavis. Generative grammar. Hermeneutic circle. Historical sociology. Idiolect. Idiom. Intention. Intentionality. Lingua franca. Linguistic prescription. Linguistic relativity. Literariness. Literary criticism. Literary element. Literary language. Literary theory. Literature. Logic. Modernism. Monograph. Morality. Narrative logic. Oral literature. Persuasion. Phenomenology (philosophy). Philology. Philosophy of language. Poetry. Pronoun. Referent. Sociology of literature. Speech act. Subjectivism. Syntagma (linguistics). Text (literary theory). The Textbooks. Theory of Literature. Theory. Universality (philosophy). Ut pictura poesis. V. Value judgment. What Is Literature?. World literature. Writing.
801