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Theory of Literature by René Wellek
£17.99
Out of stock
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781628972832
Published:
16 May 2024
Format:
Paperback
Number of pages:
406 pages
Dimensions:
216x140mm
Weight:
0.000kgs
Author:
'Theory of Literature' was born from the collaboration of René Wellek, a Vienna-born student of Prague School linguistics, and Austin Warren, an independently minded 'old New Critic'. Unlike many other textbooks of its era, however, this classic kowtows to no dogma and toes no party line. Wellek and Warren looked at literature as both a social product - influenced by politics, economics, etc. - as well as a self-contained system of formal structures. Incorporating examples from Aristotle to Coleridge, written in clear, uncondescending prose, this is a work which, especially in its suspicion of simplistic explanations and its distrust of received wisdom, remains extremely relevant to the study of literature today.
It is said that this book reached an important milestone in the study of literature by crystalizing a movement that had been under way for two decades in this country. The movement being to focus literary criticism and literary study in general on literature itself, rather than on the historical backgrounds, the psychological mechanisms, the political and social currents that influence literary creation. It conceives of imaginative literature as a way of knowing, different from but as humanly useful as the method of natural science.
It begins with a brilliantly stated set of definitions of the nature and function of literature; and it proceeds through an examination of what goes into the making of a work of literature, to an analysis of the elements of literary composition and a statement of the principles by which we can evaluate the literary work itself.
The timeless virtue of this work is that the authors are thoroughly grounded in the traditional methods of literary scholarship, and also thoroughly aware of the impact of the social and psychological sciences on all modern thinking, then and now. Theory of Literature incorporates examples ranging from Aristotle to Coleridge and is written in clear, uncondescending prose, which, especially in its suspicion of simplistic explanations and its distrust of received wisdom, remains extremely relevant to the study of literature today. It was and still will be eagerly sought for by teachers, critics, students, and all other who seek objective standards for judging and further understanding the art of literature.
About the Author: RENÉ WELLEK (1903-1995) was a Czech-American comparative literary critic. He taught at the University of Iowa for seven years before being hired at Yale University in 1946 where he was a professor of Slavic literature and was widely regarded as the founder of the study of comparative literature. He published many works throughout his life. Some of his more well-regarded titles were Immanuel Kant in England 1793-1838, Dostoevsky: A Collection of Critical Essays, Literature and Ideas, among many others.
| Number of pages | 406 |
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