Terms Of Literary Criticism Research Articles

On <I>topoi</I> in Arab Islamic historiography

In the article the presence of topoi in early Arab Islamic historiography is substantiated for the ϐirst time. They are considered in the sense given to this term in literary criticism, i.e. as repetitive motives of folklore origin that were recorded in written form. For an example the author took the plot of surrender of a city (fortress) according to an agreement, in which the names of those who received mercy were enumerated, but the commander who concluded it forgot to inscribe there his name. At ϐirst the use of that topos is examined with regard to the capture of the city of Susa in Khuzestan by the Muslims (on the basis of the reports by al-Dīnawarī, al-Balādhurī and Ibn A‘tham al-Kūϐī and of their interpretations by Aliy I. Kolesnikov and Oleg G. Bolshakov). Then the same motive is analyzed in the tale about surrender of the fortress of al-Nudjayr which put the end to the “War of Apostasy” in Ḥaḍramawt. The assumption is made that Arab Islamic historians turned to topoi in order to make the narrative more entertaining and to ϐill up the lack of real information.

«Мстислава древний поединок…»: рассказ «Повести временных лет» в стихотворении В. Сосноры «Бой Мстислава с Редедей» (1959)

This paper deals with the poem by V. Sosnora, “The Battle of Mstislav with Rededya” (1959). The poem is based on the story of “The Russian Primary Chronicl” under 6530 (1022) devoted to the event mentioned in the title. According to the poet, when writing his “historical” poems, he “re-imagines” the material of ancient Russian monuments and brings it closer to the modern reader. The poet’s creative method was often misunderstood by critics and satirists who referred to his “irreverent” treatment of history. In terms of literary criticism, “re-imagining” implies using a rich palette of poetic means of allusions and associations, a deliberate mixture of ancient and modern, and others. Addressing the named story of “The Russian Primary Chronicl,” as well as to other chronicle stories and “The Song of Igor’s Campaign,” Sosnora creates a poetical plot. This plot emphasizes the dynamics of the duel of chronicle characters, marks individual features of their appearance, hides by default an important detail for the chronicle narrative (knife), and introduces a dialogue (an expressive squabble before the battle of the title characters), reworking the chronicle event to give the battle scene “visual”, “cinematic” effect. This could not be the case in Old Russian narration subordinated to literary etiquette. By arranging the semantic and rhythmic accents under his idea, the poet seems to offer a fantastic reconstruction of one of the Boyan’s songs.

The terms of contemporary Arabic literary criticism

This study discusses the use of developed terms of literary criticism in the Arab. literature always experiences renewal in terms of science because literary criticism is a cultural product that often interacts with the conditions of the surrounding world, one of which is the terms of literary criticism which is the criterion in its use, so that raises the question, what are the terms of the Arabic literary criticism that are developing now? the purpose of this study is to find out the terms of literary criticism that developed in contemporary times as balancing the transformation of the ever expanding world of external literature. The method used in this research is library research, which is by collecting library data related to terms in Arabic literature. The finding in this study is that in contemporary Arabic literature there are three phenomenal terms, first the inner experience of poets (writers), the second organic unity and the theme in literary works, the third form of poetry.

Ovidio: Metamorfosi. Volume VI (Libri XIII–XV) ed. by P. Hardie

Reviewed by: Ovidio: Metamorfosi. Volume VI (Libri XIII–XV) ed. by P. Hardie Joseph B. Solodow P. Hardie (ed.). Ovidio: Metamorfosi. Volume VI (Libri XIII–XV). Testo critico basato sull’edizione oxoniense di Richard Tarrant. Traduzione di Gioachino Chiarini. Scrittori greci e latini. Milan: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2015. Pp. lxi, 717. €30.00. ISBN 978-88-04-65162-8. The volume under review, which completes this distinguished series, fully measures up to its predecessors. The basic format—text, facing-page Italian [End Page 280] translation, extensive notes— continues, yet this volume, unlike the others (except the third), includes no general introduction: an opportunity lost. Being the last, moreover, it contains an index to the entire series. Hardie’s text differs from Tarrant’s 2004 Oxford Classical Text in fifty-four places, nearly all discussed in the commentary. Taking book 13 as a sample, I find that a few differences are trivial (for example, pinnigero for pennigero in 963), a number are significant yet hard to decide (dolorque for timorque in 282), at least one is undesirable (deduxit for diduxit in 264: what kind of garment is Ulysses wearing that could be pulled down?), whereas others are clear improvements: 295 retained in the text (accusing Ajax of being a Philistine in art appreciation is a very Ovidian touch; and see 290–91), placatum for pacatum in 440 (Luck’s conjecture, published after the OCT), in 444 infesto for iniusto, 560 expelled from the text (a reversal of the usual role played by Tarrant’s successors!), involat for invocat in 561 (Chiarini translates invocat, however), and in 921 debitus for deditus. For books 13 and 14, Hardie’s commentary competes with those of N. Hopkinson (2000) and K. S. Myers (2009), respectively, both in the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series. Within the decade that separates those two, the format of the series expanded: the page grew larger, so too the space available for interpretive comments, and the excellence of the latter has become a hallmark of the series. Now, we all recognize both that much material in commentaries is tralatician and that no commentary can aspire to say everything that might usefully be said. Still, one can note the tendencies of each. Hardie collects a larger number of relevant passages from ancient literature than Hopkinson or Myers. He also quotes more, Greek regularly in translation, Latin almost always accompanied by translation. Whereas Hopkinson remarks (on 13.935) “Ovidian narrators often draw attention to the improbable nature of what they are relating” without citation, Hardie, following Bömer, quotes six more instances to prove the point. He rarely presents relevant items from the history of the Latin language: contrast Hopkinson’s explanation of how iuratus (13.50) came to have an active meaning. Hardie, although he has more space at his disposal, passes over many comments of his predecessors that are valuable: Hopkinson’s remarking, for instance, that, until Ajax speaks, it is not clear whether he will resort to words or deeds (on 13.1–5), or Myers’s noting (on 14.32) that in the poem “confidence in one’s own physical beauty invariably results in disaster for mortals,” or that Ovid may be “correcting” Vergil’s account at 14.205. In particular, Hardie is not so bold as Myers in his interpretive moves. He chooses not to report some of her shrewdest comments, especially those that reflect Ovid’s high literary self-consciousness. Myers notes, for instance, that with improvisoque repertum (14.161) the poet underlines an intertextual joke, and that through an internal narrator he comments on his own narrative strategy (ad 14.473), and that in tumidarum . . . aquarum (14.4), where tumidus is “a negative term in literary criticism for the inflated or grand style,” he is making “a programmatic reference . . . to the lofty style of epic poetry.” Nonetheless, one finds in Hardie’s commentary a cornucopia of observations that are both original and valuable. On 14.264–65 he points out that spinning and weaving are frequently figures for poetic creation, and that Ovid, by specifying that Circe and her maids were not engaged in those activities, but rather in preparing magical herbs...

TRILHAS E RUMOS DAS LETRAS GUINEENSES

This article aims to discuss the course of the Guinean literary production, considering the particularities of the country. We aim to offer a brief overview of its main authors. At the end, we will devote a few lines to present some of what has already been produced in terms of literary criticism on the Guinean production.

A New Perspective of Literary Criticism

Paratext is a relatively new term in literary criticism, which is mainly elaborated by modern French scholar Gérard Genette. Article presents a qualitative method with its purpose to present a survey to this new literary term and probe into what may lie behind this new critic perspective. Analysis was done by exploring the new literatures in terms of paratext. It can be concluded that paratext has a great influence to the deeper understanding from different perspectives of a literature work.

On the Discrimination of Influences

Although influence remains a pervasive term in literary criticism, little has changed in its theoretical framework since the work of Harold Bloom in the early 1970s. This essay argues that adaptations of findings in cognitive and social science open up more finely nuanced means of analyzing literary influence. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the test case for such adaptations. I examine two forms of influence: local allusion and global revision of thematic and narrative structures. The psychology of memory for language provides tools for distinguishing among allusions by stressing the differences between the processes of encoding and retrieval and the consequences of these differences for literary works. To analyze global influence, I return influence to its ordinary meaning of persuasion. The social psychology of persuasion provides an alternative to Bloomian psychoanalysis as a means of describing the factors involved in persuasion and their interactions.

Sut Lovingood and the Hard No in Appalachian Literature: (Part II)

Sut Lovingood and the Hard No in Appalachian Literature (Part II) Robert J. Higgs Let me try to explain how ironic our situation is in terms of literary criticism . Neither Wolfe nor Agee, brilliant and distinguished as they were, would qualify for admission into the exclusive club of the Hard No. On the other hand, we cannot claim them as Appalachian writers if, as Bill Ward proposes, we adopt as a means of measurement "something akin to the eighteenth-century sense of the essential identity of things," in this case the presence of the mountains. By this standard, says Ward, A Death in the Family is "a book preponderantly about urban Catholics" and "to view it as an example of Appalachian fiction will teach us nothing about the novel or the tradition either." To a degree this is also true, he claims, of the works ofWolfe. This position, however, is entirely too reductive since in the works of both authors the rural background of main characters relates to every aspect of the novel. As in criticism, what is essential is an understanding of the way that "outside" elements in plots interact with "inside" ones to create the "whole" story, further evidence of the need for a liberal theory of change such as that of Fish. The writer with strong connections to the region who has most consistently displayed the "power of blackness" is Cormac McCarthy, but even in McCarthy's novels there is less a Hard No than a veiled yes. The Nay Sayer, says Fiedler, "affirms the void," but the word "void" in the sense of the great unknown is a little rich for Appalachian and Southern blood, suggesting as it does a passive universe and a sort of oriental Robert J. Higgs, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and professor ofEnglish at East Tennessee State University, is a noted authority on Appalachian literature. He is the author of scholarly studies on a variety of topics, including sports. resignation. Instead of the void Appalachians are more apt to favor "outer dark," the title of a McCarthy romance. The notion of the void suggests that darkness merely is; that of the outer dark, that it teems. Indeed this is what Loren Eiseley, a Nay Sayer of the first rank, was trying to get across with this spine-tingling line: "Before act was or substance existed, imagination grew in the dark." Imagination—that is the key to the understanding of the apparent Hard No in Appalachian writing. In McCarthy there is a kinetic darkness that moves over the face ofthe light, creating an awe that makes us conscious of the hairlike divide between reality and dream—or nightmare. So it was in the beginning, and so it is still, McCarthy persuades us if we'll look far enough below the surface. Thus instead of affirming the void McCarthy evokes a mystery, not so much the "mystery of inequity" that obsessed Hawthorne and Melville but, like brother Sim Mobberly, the mystery of being itself. Perhaps the darkest novel by an Appalachian writer is Dagon by Fred Chappell, but the blocks of blackness with which Chappell constructs his portrayal of the arrival of evil in the new world represent more of a temporary adoption, a writing of passage through the depths of evil, than a permanent signature. Says Amy Tipton Gray in her brilliant thesis on this novel, "Dagon is Chappell's last plunge into darkness . . . ." Then also drawing upon the work of Rita Quillen, she adds, "After Dagon Chappell moves from the abstractions of the arabesque to 'the folk artist's obviousness.' This, he says, 'may be the richest of literary possibilities,' for the folk artist seeks to show his readers reality as it is. He seeks to 'situate' his readers 'fairly comfortably in recognizable appearance ' from which they can readily ascertain the 'home truths' he seeks to present. Such a writer's use of appearance is for the reader to look through, not at.'" The arabesque tends to equate with the precious and the dark romance; the folk artist's mode with the novel of manners or the realistic novel which, instead of concentrating on the dark, will tend...

Christian Historical Drama: The Exemplariness of Murder in the Cathedral

Whatever may be deemed necessary to define it, the inclusion of historically documented characters or events, the authenticity of its subject-matter, the presentation, as Coleridge demanded, of the audience's own past,' or what have you, historical drama will embody and convey a concept of history. This seems inevitably so. Since all drama exists in time, it will , explicitly or implicitly, make statements about the nature of time, its progression and direction, and thus about history. Yet to call all drama historical because of that were to use a comprehensive and therefore meaningless label. Further restrictions are needed, if "historical drama" is to he usefully employed as a generic term in literary criticism. Two such restrictions suggest themselves: the first, that the play's concept of history must be presented through historical matter either known or established as such; the second, that this concept is to be communicated through theatrical and rhetorical means shaped by it and therefore expressive of its very essence. If these limiting conditions are adhered to, subject-matter and audience expectation, literary form and the fiction of historicity, can be seen as interdependent, and the history play emerges as a dramatic sub-genre with its very own formal and thematic properties.

Christian Historical Drama: The Exemplariness of <i>Murder in the Cathedral</i>

Whatever may be deemed necessary to define it, the inclusion of historically documented characters or events, the authenticity of its subject-matter, the presentation, as Coleridge demanded, of the audience's own past,' or what have you, historical drama will embody and convey a concept of history. This seems inevitably so. Since all drama exists in time, it will , explicitly or implicitly, make statements about the nature of time, its progression and direction, and thus about history. Yet to call all drama historical because of that were to use a comprehensive and therefore meaningless label. Further restrictions are needed, if "historical drama" is to he usefully employed as a generic term in literary criticism. Two such restrictions suggest themselves: the first, that the play's concept of history must be presented through historical matter either known or established as such; the second, that this concept is to be communicated through theatrical and rhetorical means shaped by it and therefore expressive of its very essence. If these limiting conditions are adhered to, subject-matter and audience expectation, literary form and the fiction of historicity, can be seen as interdependent, and the history play emerges as a dramatic sub-genre with its very own formal and thematic properties.

Mr F’s Aunt: A Laughing Matter

M R F'S A UNT: A LA U G H IN G M A T TER GEORGE WING University of Calgary I n Little Dorrit there is a scene in London set about 1836. In a house off the Gray's Inn Road, a formidable assembly eat a substantial dinner while not too far away an inarticulate plasterer and his family, the Plornishes, are near the point of starvation. Patriarchal Casby is presiding over the dinner of soup, fish, mutton, steak, and apple pie; present at his table is Pancks, who in working hours harasses Plornish and the other wretched of Bleeding Heart Yard much as an earlier Newman Noggs (whom Pancks resembles in essential goodness and fortuitous servitude) hunts debtors in similar slums of London in Nicholas Nickleby. A bitter novel of human greed? Undoubtedly. Present also is Flora who represents Dickens's caricatural vengeance on Maria Beadnell, who turned him down when he was a young reporter and whom he met many years later, fat and fatuous, under much the same circumstances as Arthur Clennam, who is also present at the Casby dinner, has just met again Flora, coincidentally plump, garrulous, and pathetically girlish. A novel of sour sexual relationships? Yes. Present also is Flora's legacy (from her deceased husband, Mr Pinching), in the shape of an old woman, grotesquely comic - exceptional even in Dickens's range of old women - who has the acronymic title of Mr F's Aunt. Between the fried soles and the mutton Mr F's Aunt inconsequentially announces: "When we lived at Henley, Barnes's gander was stole by tinkers.''1 A novel in which "pessimism and hatred disallow comedy"?2 Not so un­ doubtedly. Humour is difficult to determine and analyse in terms of literary criticism. If we are polymathic enough we can get into psychology, social history, anthropological linguistics, and tribal behaviourisms and kill a joke stone dead. Laughter is being intellectualized and made sombre in the academic world. We notice, in a fascinating essay, that Mr F's Aunt is, as we shall see in more detail shortly, only grudgingly allowed to be "in part a humorous character"; her statement is "poison" and "she is nearly pure symbol.''3 In many parts of the English-speaking world her remark would not be considered funny. In many parts of England, which holds Mr Finching's legacy in fee, it would not nowadays be considered funny. Nor would an earlier description, in the novel, of the street in which Casby's house is situated: "[the street] had set off from that thoroughfare [Gray's Inn Road] with the intention of running at one heat down into the valley, and up again to the top of Pentonville Hill; but... English Studies in Ca n ad a, h i, 2, Summer 1977 208 had run itself out of breath in twenty yards and had stood still ever since ... it remained there for many years, looking with a baulked countenance at the wilderness patched with unfruitful gardens and pimpled with eruptive summer-houses, that it had meant to run over in no time" (p 144). We may well find a poisonous symbol here - the scene could intimate corruption of big business, the inefficiency of the Circumlocution Office, the maladministration of the Marshalsea and Dickens's bad marriage - and perhaps the sorry socio­ political consequences of the Gordon Riots of 1780. I quote this passage, however, as a contrast to Mr F's Aunt's statement. The comic images (if not pure symbols, and if comedy is not disallowed) in the Casby street passage achieve their essential comedy from hyperbolic invention, a dash of satire, and a fierce, child-like fancy - among other things. The humour of the Henley gander is different and I should like to come to that later. Humour is universal. Sartre, not really celebrated for his jests, said at the age of seventy: "You must keep in the laughter. You must put: 'An accompaniment of laughter.'"4 Humour is universal but its consistency, its chemistry, its architecture of hilarity are not. Both Alan Wilde and J.R. Kincaid, whom I have briefly quoted above, are not only very able scholars...

Motivation and Direction of Reading Assignments on the Intermediate Level

THE topic of this paper cannot be discussed without reference to a greater and unresolved issue. In the light of the audio-lingual substructure of contemporary foreign language learning, the intermediate level has become quite a puzzle for methodological considerations. The character of the approach on this level not only determines whether or not the instructional process will be an organic continuum that maintains and expands the active language habit, but it also determines whether or not the tremendous efforts and considerable expenses of audio-lingual first-year work are justified. The problem is centered in the reading course that occupies the most prominent position of secondyear college work. The main task of intermediate reading is to provide the transition from the plain and practical everyday language to the language of literature. This necessitates a gradual shifting of emphasis from the natural situations to the more unique and often problematic situations of fiction, from simple fact and obvious meaning to complicated thought and hidden meaning, from the mechanics of grammar to the subtleties of style. From the ideal view of the continuum this task must be guided by two essential and demanding principles: first, the development of reading techniques that enable the student to get meaning directly from the printed page with little or no recourse to translation; second, the development of ability and confidence to discuss the reading matter in the foreign language and with an ever increasing degree of sophistication. The first principle offers a challenge, especially for textbook editing, and indeed it is already reflected and supported by a growing number of recent texts that feature marginal glosses in the foreign language instead of the more traditional English equivalents. These glosses encourage the student to stay within the foreign language when confronted with new vocabulary; the English equivalents simply reduce thumbing time without contributing to the realization of the principle stated. Unfortunately, the second principle of the continuum cannot count on a device or technique that equals the effectiveness of carefully worked out marginal glosses. This causes many teachers (especially also excellent teachers) who value mature literary discussion to surrender to the use of English. A radical audio-lingualist would have to call this treason, but in so doing he fails to accept the dual commitment of the intermediate phase toward language and literature. The rather genuine argument for the return to English is simply this: the student lacks ease of expression and the more refined, critical vocabulary to take part in and profit from the discussion of a literary work. This can hardly be denied. On the other hand, it is part and parcel of the intermediate commitment to develop this ease of expression; furthermore, much of the vocabulary of literary criticism exists, though dormantly, in the form of readily accessible cognates. In German, for example, one can rely on words such as: Vers, Reim, Strophe, Rhythmus, Alliteration, Allegorie, Metapher, Symbol, Humor, Ironie, Satire, (and their respective derivatives). These are but a very few of a long list. There is no doubt that this vocabulary can be supplied, either gradually or in form of a handout at the beginning of the course. Naturally, no miracles are to be expected from these words, words, words, since there are many other factors involved,-linguistic, literary, psychological, and methodological. But nevertheless, early familiarity with the terms of literary criticism is one of the prerequisites for rewarding discussions of literary works in the foreign language. The more such prerequisites are recognized and fulfilled, the closer will we come to the realization of the continuum principles. The main purpose of this paper is to re-examine the assignment practice, and to find out what new concepts are necessary to make the

Situation as a Term in Literary Criticism Again

Situation as a Term in Literary Criticism Again

Situation as a Term in Literary Criticism

Situation as a Term in Literary Criticism