Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
1. Pope:
“Born at the beginning of neoclassical age
“Voice of the neoclassical age by age 20.
“Embodies in his writings eighteenth-century thought and literary criticism.”
“Major British poet”
Considered “the literary pope” of England because of the publication of his
most influential writing, Essay on Criticism.
2. Contentions:
Classical age: the golden age of criticism.
Classical age: Age of Homer, Aristotle, Horace, and Longinus.
Classical writers: “rules and laws of a harmonious and ordered nature.”
Mimetic dictum: The foremost task of a critic and a poet = copy the classical
writers.”
Chief requirement of a good poet: natural genius + knowledge of the classics
+ understanding the rules of poetry + politeness and grace
OR: Good poet = natural genius + good breeding + rules established by
classical writers
Fixed standards: poetic diction, heroic couplet as a standard for verse, and
personification of abstract ideas.
Emotional outbreaks and free verse = unrefined.
Poetry = reassertion of “the truths or absolutes already discovered by the
classical writers.”
Critic’s task: to validate and maintain the classical values; to be “the custodian
and defender of good taste and cultural values.”
Foundations of Pope’s contentions: mimetic theory and rhetoric theory
(patterns of structure)
MATTHEW ARNOLD
1. Arnold
“Self-appointed voice of English Victorianism, the literary epoch immediately
following Wordsworth’s romanticism.
2. Poetry
Poetry “can provide the necessary truths, values and guidelines for society.”
Foundation of his literary theory: classical criteria used in dealing with a text
Roots: Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, and other classical writers
The best poetry is of a higher truth and seriousness than history (see:
Aristotle’s Poetics).
Plato: Literature reflects society and its values and concerns
Longinus: Defines a classic and decrees that such a work belongs to
the highest or the best class.
Poetry is humankind’s crowning glory.
“We have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to
sustain us.”
Science without poetry is not complete.
Features of the best poetry:
Eminent degree
Truth
Seriousness = moral excellence; a measure by which society judges
itself.
3. “The Study of Poetry” and “The Function of Literature at the Present Time”
Social role of criticism: creating a current of true and fresh ideas.
Critics should not be involved in politics and mundane affairs = aloofness.
Aloofness leads to high culture=a prerequisite for the poet and the writing of
the best poetry.
Objective judgement of a text: lines and expressions of the great masters as
“a touchstone of other poetry = compare the new text to the classic that
contains the sublime.
Objective touchstone of poetry redefines the task of the literary critic and
introduces a subjective approach in literary criticism.
Critic: not the interpreter of literary texts
Critic: authority on values, culture and taste.
Critic defines what literature and high culture are.
Conclusion: poetry is the most important activity.
Poetry: rescue humanity from its baser elements and would help us all to
truth.
1. H. James
Critical essay: “The Art of Fiction”
First articulated theory of the novel in English Literature
Concerned with developing a theory of writing a novel.
2. Theory of novel
Novel: a personal and direct impression of life . . . that constitutes its value
Novel must be interesting.
James rejected romanticist notion of suspending disbelief while reading a
text.
Features of a novel:
Realistic: represents life and is recognized by its readers
Good novels show life in action
Bad novels are either romantic or scientific.
Good writers are good thinkers: select, evaluate, and imaginatively
use the stuff of life in their work.
Text = organic; no omniscient narrator that tells.
Shows the action (mimesis) and doesn’t tell it (diegesis)
Novel became a respectable genre for literary critics because of Henry
James.
3. Reader
Decides on the worth of a text based on the work of the classic writers.