07级英国文学Lcture1-6.docVIP

III. About Literature: 1. Literature: literary writing (including the writing of fictions, poems, drama and so on) ------ creative, hence an art literary studies (analysis, comment, interpretation, and criticism on literary works following certain theories or principles) ------ scientific, hence a science 2. Lityerary studies: Literary theory: the study of the principles of literature, its categories, criteria and the like; Literay criticism: the study of specific works of art (paintings, drawings, sculpture, films and TV drama/plays) Literary history: the study of specific literary works arranged in a chronological order, esp., seen as integral parts of the history; 3. the modern world: From the end of the 19th century to the 20th century, actually beginning with the late 19th century since there was already a sense of passing in the air; Differences between the 19th century and the 20th century literary worlds: (2 important events happening at the turn of the centuries: WWI ----- 1914-1918；the Great Depression ------ beginning 1929 into early 1930s) * the 19th century mainstreams: Romanticism (including symbolism, represented by the ‘Lakers’ ------ William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, S.T. Coleridge) Realism (represented by Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy) * the 20th century mainstreams: Influenced and pounded in literary theory and criticism by humanism and scientism (in philosophy, eg. Formalism ); pushed forward by modernism and post-modernism (in literary writing, eg, streams of consciousness); Characteristics of the 20th century literary world: * Many schools exist, some die out, some replaced by others. While they disbute with each other, they also draw upon each other. * the turn to cultural studies (Terry eagleton and Fredrick James); VI. Shifts and turns in the 20th century literary world: 1. 2 historical shifts: * the shift from studying the author to studying the text; * the shift from