English Literary Criticism Research Articles

The Shifting Faces of Epic Heroes: Unity and Diversity in Seventeenth-Century English Literary Criticism

Seventeenth-century England, renowned for its epic poems, stands as one of the most fruitful periods in the history of English literary criticism in terms of epic theory. One of the most significant topics of literary criticism during this era is the evolution of epic heroes. The critics at the time had comprehensive knowledge of the existing pagan and Christian traditions of epic heroes which were varied and interwoven. Moreover, the critics of the period were well acquainted with the literary criticisms of late Renaissance Italy and seventeenth-century France. However, they did not simply absorb influences from Greek, Roman, French, and Italian sources. Instead, English critics engaged in an active dialogue with these traditions, interpreting and adapting their ideas in light of their own cultural, historical, and theological context. This enabled critics to create individual approaches towards epic heroes, thereby making English literary criticism diverse but also too fragmented to form a cohesive group. This aspect of the period makes drawing the contours of the epic heroes immensely challenging. However, despite the overriding eclecticism inherent in the literary criticism of the period, this article indicates that there is a surprising degree of consensus on certain characteristics of epic heroes. Accordingly, this article examines the concept of epic heroes in seventeenth-century English literary criticism, focusing on four key aspects: the didactic role of epic heroes, their depiction as paragons of virtue, the significance of their lineage, and the intricate process of Christianising them.

The subject of Kazakhstan in English minor genres of literary publicist

Relevance. The relevance of the study is that the subject of Kazakhstan can be traced in the history of minor literary genres through the prism of the relationship between English and Kazakh literature, which is most often manifested in the genres of ideological enlightenment and travel. English researchers have published numerous reference books and encyclopedias on the geography, anthropology, and ethnography of the peoples of Asia. The English works of the 19th century contain a large amount of information about the Kazakhs, who at that time lived in Germany, France, England, and other countries. One of the important sources of the subject of Kazakhstan is the corresponding essays and diaries presented in the journals of English literary critics. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to consider artistic materials that reflect the subject of Kazakhstan in English interpretation. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study consisted of the following approaches: historical, retrospective, and systemic. Results. Foreign travellers who visited the steppe lands often wrote travel notes and letters under the impressions, in which they characterised the spiritual, traditional, and everyday creativity of the peoples of those areas, introducing the inhabitants of Europe to the preserved way of life of a distant land located on the territory of the modern Republic of Kazakhstan. Since with the advancement of maritime and economic aspects, the activity in the discovery and development of unexplored countries for the purpose of trade has increased. English merchants of that time actively used the routes through Asia for expeditions, which further expanded trade relations. Kazakh-Anglo-American literary ties in the last century are one of the important facets of the spiritual culture of the people of Kazakhstan. Conclusions. The practical value lies in highlighting the main subjects and materials of the Kazakh people in English minor literary genres.

The theory of Chinese narrative prose in the early twentieth century.

The subject of the study is critical articles by Chinese writers and literary theorists of the early twentieth century. They are dedicated to ways of transforming traditional literature. The object of the study is the evolution of the views of Wang Guowei, Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Yu Dafu, who in the process of creating modern Chinese literature (Xiandai Wenxue) set tasks for the national intelligentsia. The article proves that the interpretation of the main constants of modern Chinese literature was based on the ideas of Western, primarily German and English literary criticism and aesthetics. The article pays special attention to the discussion between Lu Xun and Hu Shi on the issue of the ideological position of writers, and Yu Dafu's articles on the role of the reception of Western aesthetics. The research methodology is based on the theoretical principles of historical-literary, historical-cultural, historical-functional, comparative-historical analysis. Elements of intertextual and receptive approaches are used. The main conclusion of the study is that the transition from the literary language of classical Confucian monuments (wenyan) to the spoken language (baihua) has become an important vector for Chinese literary theorists. However, their views on the future of modern national literature differed. Lu Xun insisted that the future of literature depended on the class affiliation of the literati. Yu Dafu believed that writers should use the experience of the best prose writers of classical literature in Western countries, and also take into account the literary inclinations of readers. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time in Russian Sinology, a comparative analysis of critical articles by prominent Chinese writers and literary theorists becomes the object of study.

The Shifting Faces of Epic Heroes: Unity and Diversity in Seventeenth-Century English Literary Criticism

Seventeenth-century England, renowned for its epic poems, stands as one of the most fruitful periods in the history of English literary criticism in terms of epic theory. One of the most significant topics of literary criticism during this era is the evolution of epic heroes. The critics at the time had comprehensive knowledge of the existing pagan and Christian traditions of epic heroes which were varied and interwoven. Moreover, the critics of the period were well acquainted with the literary criticisms of late Renaissance Italy and seventeenth-century France. However, they did not simply absorb influences from Greek, Roman, French, and Italian sources. Instead, English critics engaged in an active dialogue with these traditions, interpreting and adapting their ideas in light of their own cultural, historical, and theological context. This enabled critics to create individual approaches towards epic heroes, thereby making English literary criticism diverse but also too fragmented to form a cohesive group. This aspect of the period makes drawing the contours of the epic heroes immensely challenging. However, despite the overriding eclecticism inherent in the literary criticism of the period, this article indicates that there is a surprising degree of consensus on certain characteristics of epic heroes. Accordingly, this article examines the concept of epic heroes in seventeenth-century English literary criticism, focusing on four key aspects: the didactic role of epic heroes, their depiction as paragons of virtue, the significance of their lineage, and the intricate process of Christianising them.

The Problem of Gothic in the Storytelling of Madina Omarova

This article examines the problem of the Gothic in contemporary storytelling of the writer Madina Omarova. Let's imagine that the Gothic style characteristic of Western literature, reflected in the Kazakh prose with an original Kazakh coloring and in the context of synthesis, are analyzed and presented as an ongoing study, building on previous research. To reveal the topic, we use the methodology of modern Kazakh literary studies aimed at studying the author and the methodology of studying mythological-critical hermeneutics, the literary process in the national and international framework. We studied and used the theoretical justification of this problem in the works of Kazakh, Russian, and English literary critics. The initiative of this question was analyzed in the Kazakh literary studies in the article «Gothic expressions in modern Kazakh prose» by Adil Zhakulaev. This was followed by some discussions and work on a project studied on the basis of a grant. Nevertheless, according to the stories of the writer Madina Omarova, we consider it necessary to study the Neo-Gothic style and its artistic activity. Mystical directions, branches of psychologism in traditional Kazakh stories began to be studied in a new way. Therefore, the identification of the Gothic style, its artistic manner through the stories of the writer Madina Omarova becomes the task of the article. This is due to the fact that in Kazakh society the foundations of otherworldly power, negative illusions, mysterious destinies that give the genre character of the gothic are mystically familiar from oral literature. But the embodiment in this gothic style of the struggle between the heroes of the new time reflects the ability of the writer and the new direction in Kazakh literature. From the stories of the writer M. Omarova analyzes the artistic evolution of the gothic genre. The poetic nature is analyzed, the aspiration for the location is expressed. The work on revealing the passive and active element of the gothic in the artistic aspect of the Kazakh narrative is carried out. The process of intertwining elements of gothic and science fiction in the modern Kazakh storytelling is considered.

Evaluating the Relevance and Significance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Indian Context

Hamlet has always been remembered as Shakespeare’s masterpiece creation. The play has enjoyed unmatched popularity among the audience of all ages. Since its first public performance, till date, the play has always remained relevant to the audience, in some way or the other. The history of Hamlet in India dates back to the colonial era. The play was first introduced by the troupes which performed it for the English traders. Later on, as a consequence of the colonial education, it became the part of the formal English education and travelled to the other groups of the society. Shakespeare was a big name even then, and the ever-praised elements of the play greatly influenced the local audience. With the development, translation and movie-adaptation also greatly helped in the wider circulation of the play, and it never went totally out of discussion. The present research paper focuses on some of the major elements which helped in this larger popularity of the play in a non-English-speaking country like India. It will try to analyse the relevance and significance of Hamlet to the audience in the Indian context. The focus will also be on the translation and the different kinds of adaptations of the play which have greatly helped in a wider circulation of Shakespeare’s creative genius. The paper begins with a general discussion of the play, mostly taking accounts from the English literary critics, and moves on to the analysis of the play in the Indian context.

“Special Feature: The Achievements of John Dennis,” ed. Claude Willan. 1650–1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era, ed. Kevin L. Cope

“Special Feature: The Achievements of John Dennis,” ed. Claude Willan. <i>1650–1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era, ed. Kevin L. Cope</i>

Sleep and Its Spaces in Middle English Literature: Emotions, Ethics, Dreams by Megan Leitch

Reviewed by: Sleep and Its Spaces in Middle English Literature: Emotions, Ethics, Dreams by Megan Leitch Carolyne Larrington megan leitch, Sleep and Its Spaces in Middle English Literature: Emotions, Ethics, Dreams. Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture 40. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2021. Pp. 284. isbn: 978-1-5261-5110-0. £80.00. This is a lively and thoughtful exploration of a topic that seems to have been unaccountably overlooked in Middle English literary criticism. Dreams, generically [End Page 153] diverse and proto-fictional products of sleep, have been amply investigated without much consideration of the vital human process that is a prerequisite for them. Sleep proves to be remarkably interesting; as signalled by the subtitle, Megan Leitch's book thinks about it in a range of different ways. The book begins with an account of sleep as understood from medical—Galenic—perspectives, as explored in fifteenth-century health regimens. Sleep is understood as a phenomenon that can 'press the reset button,' allowing processes of digestion, humoral rebalance, and consequently, emotional calming to take place. The second chapter investigates the ethical dimensions of sleep. Notable here are the recommendations for 'proper' sleeping. One should sleep on one's side, not propped upright, or heaven forbid, grovelling on the stomach; sleeping position is indicative of the sleeper's moral state. Daytime sleep can be risky: it lays women in romance open to supernatural assault, and even Sir Launcelot, overcome by a desire for sleep in the noonday heat, finds himself captured and imprisoned by a quartet of sorceresses, bent on persuading him to choose one of them as his lover. 'Sloggy slombrynge,' as Chaucer's Parson's Tale characterizes it, signifies serious ethical deficiency, as embodied by Langland's memorable portraits of Sloth and Gluttony. Sleep and its places are everywhere in the canonical texts in Middle English literature. The Pearl -poet's work explores their implications in each of his poems: the disturbing dreams of Belshazzar in Cleanness; Jonah's capacity to sleep as a storm rages around the ship on which he hopes to escape his mission; the extreme mourning that sends the dreamer to sleep in Pearl; and the events in the Hautdesert guest-chamber. Gawain pretends to sleep as the lady slips between his bed-curtains, and his sleep is deeply troubled on the night before he faces his nemesis. Leitch offers many astute and well-argued readings of the meaning of sleep in these texts. The third chapter focuses on sleeping spaces, calling attention to the generic differences between sleep in romance, dream-vision, and fabliau. Leitch develops a persuasive argument that the lack of explicit reference to sexual activity in many Middle English texts is filled by euphemistic reference to private bedchambers. Various versions of the King Horn story, in its Anglo-Norman and English versions, reveal the different treatments of Rymenhild's summons of Horn to her bower, where she declares her love for him, and its aftermath. Sexual desire is thus displaced into spaces of sleep; to contemporary audiences, however, the implications of intimate exchanges in chambers would have been highly visible. Sleeping spaces are not only sites of possible sexual activity, as the many conversations between Pandarus and Troilus in the prince's chamber testify; the bedroom is also a space in which characters can give vent to turbulent emotions, weep, and lament, or, as in Chaucer's Second Nun's Tale, persuade one's bridegroom to convert to Christianity and live chastely. Leitch is careful to note the exceptional nature of such privacy; for royalty and aristocrats, the private quarters contain attendants, who may be confidantes—or spies. In the final chapter Leitch focuses on Chaucer's dream-visions, unpacking The Book of the Duchess and The Legend of Good Women to show how conventions around sleeping and insomnia point to a Chaucerian narrator who needs both healthful sleep and books to compose new works. Though Chaucer discusses Macrobius' theorization [End Page 154] of dreams in The Parliament of Fowls, Leitch makes a compelling case for a parallel Aristotelian understanding of dreams as equally caused by experience in the real world, especially by humoral imbalance. Though Pertelote's common-sense view of...

Samuel Johnson’s Literary Criticism in the Light of Preface to Shakespeare

Preface to Shakespeare has long been considered a classic document of English literary criticism. In it, Johnson sets forth his editorial principles and provides an appreciative analysis of the merits and defects of the work of the great Elizabethan dramatist—Shakespeare. The present paper mainly discusses Johnson’s literary theories proposed in Preface to Shakespeare which can be concluded as follows: First, Johnson’s famous theory of “general nature,” in which he emphasizes the importance of the universality of literary works. Second, the importance of morality and didacticism in literature. Third, Johnson’s opposition to confirming “three unities” dogmatically, especially the unity of time and the unity of place. Except for the discussion of Johnson’s theories, the present paper also summarizes the features and the limitations of Johnson’s criticism. Through the analysis of Johnson’s views on literature in Preface to Shakespeare, the present paper provides a general overview of Samuel Johnson’s literary criticism.

Shakespeare and the Romantics

Shakespeare and the Romantics

Sense and Sensibility: Giving Notes in Chinese and English Literary Writings

ABSTRACT Notes are not secondary or supplementary. They provide text with sensible guidance, supported by serious scholarship. More importantly, they embrace controversial ideas and polemical attitudes. Such notes with both sense and sensibility facilitate the expression of personal ideas more efficiently than the text; they may even sustain the development of a literary work, a theoretical topic, or even a field of study by inheriting and provoking lively and consistent scholarly discussion. Such a practice, interestingly, has long appeared in both Chinese and English literary writings. By reviewing discussions about these paradoxical notes in both Chinese and English literary criticism and by examining the notes in The Waste Land and the Book of Poetry respectively, the article proposes that it is a shared practice in both English and Chinese writings to provide notes with both sense and sensibility, and such a practice not only has helped sustain lively and consistent studies of the two specific literary works in their respective writing traditions but also proves that notes, instead of being secondary and supplementary, reveal a new discourse that awaits in uncovering further profound findings.

Reading Poetry, Writing Genre. English Poetry and Literary Criticism in Dialogue with Classical Scholarship ed. by Silvio Bär and Emily Hauser

Reading Poetry, Writing Genre. English Poetry and Literary Criticism in Dialogue with Classical Scholarship ed. by Silvio Bär and Emily Hauser

Students’ Perspectives Toward The Use of Diary As Learning Strategy in English Literary Criticism Subject

This study is aimed to elaborate the students’ perspectives toward the use of diary as learning strategy in English Literary CriticismSubject of English Department, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo. The participants of this research are the students of class D that consist of 22 students at the 6th semester in academic year of 2018/2019. Using a qualitative method, the data were obtained fromsemi structure interview. This study also used Braun and Clarke theory as the technique of analyzing the data. Therefore, questions of interview were adapted and developed from Patton As a result of this research, the students believed that the use of diary can help them in teaching and learning process. Instead of impacting students, this strategy also indirectly provides benefits for the lecturers in the classroom. It is suggested to use a diary for instructional purposes as it can help students in developing their own learning processes and strategies. Besides, the strategy also has some negative impact, such as the lack of understanding new material which makes it difficult for students to learn independently and also some of the students only copied the diary fromtheir friends without discovering and reading the books by themselves. Therefore, the role of the lecturers is very important in the classroom to examine what they have written, to clarify and explain again the materials that are still confusing for the students.

The Nostalgic Imagination: History in English Criticism

The Nostalgic Imagination: History in English Criticism

Da gravata azul à mamadeira obscena: notas sobre a crítica literária hoje

O presente ensaio busca apresentar o argumento geral do livro recente de Joseph North, Literary Criticism – A Concise Political History, ligado à disputa entre o que autor chama de “paradigma crítico” e “paradigma historicista-contextualista” ao longo da crítica literária de língua inglesa, para em um segundo momento tentar extrapolar parte da discussão para o contexto brasileiro, bem como chamar a atenção para desenvolvimentos na história da arte em geral a partir do modernismo que foram deixados de lado por North. Para tanto, o ensaio reconstrói, antes de apresentar o argumento de North, algumas das ideias do filósofo Arthur C. Danto que levarão, ao final do texto, a considerações sobre as possibilidades de recuperação do paradigma crítico de que fala North no contexto de monopólio da indústria cultural sobre a educação da sensibilidade contemporânea.&#x0D; ade contemporânea.

ІНТЕЛЕКТУАЛИ ПЕРЕД ВИКЛИКАМИ ІСТОРІЇ: «ПОМСТА ПЕРШОДРУКАРЯ» СТАНІСЛАВА РОСОВЕЦЬКОГО ЯК УНІВЕРСИТЕТСЬКИЙ РОМАН

Since mid-twentieth century the academic novel has been treated in English literary criticism as a separate literary genre centered on the life of professors. Often the action takes place on and outside of campus, revealing the professors’ private concerns. Satire is a characteristic feature of academic novels, which usually drives the action. In these novels university appears as a “microcosm of society at large.” Even though the academic novel is an emerging genre in Ukrainian literature, there are texts which fall into this category. In the article the author analyzes “The Revenge of the Printer” by Stanislav Rosovetskyj as academic fiction. The novel has two plot lines, one of which is set in late 1580s in the times of Ivan Fedorov, another is set in the summer of 1991. The plot lines are joined by the setting, which is St. Onuphrius Monastery in Lviv, which in the twentieth century was turned into the museum of book-printing. The novel has the following features of the academic fiction: the main setting and the object of satire is theIvanFedorovMuseum, a cloistered institution like the university campus; the protagonist Shalva Bukviani is an academic and a professor of history facing the choice to leave the institution or to conform to the changing ideology. Collectively, these characteristics allow to define the main theme as the role of individual in the times of historical turmoil. Special attention is paid to the image of Fedorov, whose life in the novel is portrayed as a literary biography, based on research of contemporary Ukrainian historians alternative to the Soviet narrative. Due to the image of Fedorov as “Renaissance man” in the novel, the image of contemporary scholar appears as Sick Soul (M. Andryczyk), “a small Soviet man” unable to engage in protection of cultural heritage in the time of sociopolitical change.

Reading Poetry, Writing Genre: English Poetry and Literary Criticism in Dialogue with Classical Scholarship, edited by Silvio Bär and Emily Hauser

<i>Reading Poetry, Writing Genre: English Poetry and Literary Criticism in Dialogue with Classical Scholarship</i>, edited by Silvio Bär and Emily Hauser

The theory of the Indian Sanskrit origin of the Chinese drama of Zhuji in the context of the historical studies of the Oriental Culture

The purpose of the article is to illuminate the influence of Sanskrit drama on the process of traditional Chinese drama genesis, to introduce into a Ukrainian- language scientific turn of a series of information on the history of Chinese culture that is only available in modern and ancient Chinese. The research methodology is to use a combination of historical, structural, typological-comparative research methods. This methodological approach allows us to reveal and analyze the influence of the Indian Sanskrit drama on the formation of Chinese drama. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the comprehensive coverage of the problems of the genesis of the Chinese traditional drama in the context of the Indian influence on the formation of the genre paradigm of Chinese traditional drama, as well as the systematization of material provided by Chinese researchers in Chinese, which has not yet been translated into the Ukrainian language and, in most cases, not entered into a scientific rush within the framework of the English literary criticism and cultural discourse. Conclusions. The idea of a dramatic action originated in India, and later, during the first millennium AD, the Indian Sanskrit drama was exported to the territory of East Turkestan and to the territory of Southeast Asia. Subsequently, the Uighur theater had a direct influence on the formation of the Chinese civilizational and cultural environment, which can be considered proven in the context of the actual material presented in the works of Chinese researchers, systematized and presented above. In the process of forming a genre paradigm of Chinese drama, in particular, the structure of the system of the role of Indian drama had a direct influence, as well as Indian influence was the structure of drama, there is a significant number of Chinese dramas, which present the motives of Chinese Buddhism

The First Annotator of Paradise Lost and the Makings of English Literary Criticism

The 321 dense folio pages of commentary on Paradise Lost attributed only to "P. H." and published by Jacob Tonson in 1695 initiated founding moves of vernacular English literary scholarship. Their accomplishment has been obscured since their publication by the anonymity of the author, traditionally identified as "Patrick Hume," a Scottish schoolmaster. Using bibliographic and textual evidence, this article contends that "P. H." was Peter Hume, a Nonconformist servant in the Restoration Royal Household from 1668 until his death in 1707, and explores the implications of his identity upon our understanding of this foundational work of English literary scholarship.

Thinking Thinking Literature Across Continents Across Generations

Thinking <i>Thinking Literature Across Continents</i> Across Generations