Johnson's Critical Presence: Image, History, JudgementAshgate, 2004 - 172 Seiten Samuel Johnson remains one of the most frequently discussed and cited of the eighteenth-century critics; but historians of criticism have invariably interpreted his work within conventions that have allowed for little evaluative commerce between the needs of the critical present and the voices of the critical past. Smallwood's argument is that Johnson's alienation from the modern critical scene stems in part from historians' tendency to tell the story of criticism as a narrative of improvement. The image of Johnson conceived by his antagonists in the eighteenth century has been perpetuated by romanticism, by nineteenth-century representational routines and mediated to the present day, most recently, by varieties of 'radical theory'. In Johnson's Critical Presence Smallwood offers a new account of Johnson's major critical writings conceived according to a different kind of historical potential. He suggests that the historicization of eighteenth-century criticism can best be understood in the light of the 'dialogic' and 'translational' historiographies of Collingwood, Gadamer and Ricoeur, and that the explanatory contexts of Johnson's criticism must include poetry in addition to theory; in this his study seeks to displace both the history of ideas as the leading paradigm for the history of criticism and to question the developmental narrative on which it relies. By in-depth analysis of Johnson's response to Shakespeare's plays and to the poetry of Abraham Cowley, Smallwood constructs a non-reductive context of emotional experience for Johnson's criticism. This embraces the dynamic satirical caricatures by James Gillray of Johnson as critic, the irony of Johnson's critical affinities with the major romantics, and is set against twentieth-century responses to the literary 'canon'. Smallwood argues that not only Johnson's emotional sensitivities, but also the ironic voices within the critical text itself, must be fully appreciated before Johnson's current relevance, or even his historical value, can be grasped. |
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Seite 27
... writes Leavis , ' can scarcely contain his " risibility " when he hears of the " avengers of guilt peeping through a blanket , ” that is because he doesn't respond fully to Shakespeare's poetry ' . ' He cannot ' , Leavis continues ...
... writes Leavis , ' can scarcely contain his " risibility " when he hears of the " avengers of guilt peeping through a blanket , ” that is because he doesn't respond fully to Shakespeare's poetry ' . ' He cannot ' , Leavis continues ...
Seite 62
... writes of the death of Cordelia that ' internally and imaginatively , viewers are dismayed by so futile and tragic a loss . Yet , from the external perspective , few would welcome Nahum Tate's rewriting of the play where Cordelia is ...
... writes of the death of Cordelia that ' internally and imaginatively , viewers are dismayed by so futile and tragic a loss . Yet , from the external perspective , few would welcome Nahum Tate's rewriting of the play where Cordelia is ...
Seite 149
... writes W.W. Robson , ' the proposal to close the literary canon is not a live option ' . " For Charles Hinnant , in the conclusion to his Steel for the Mind , Johnson ' sees absolutely no virtue in the kind of interpretive approach that ...
... writes W.W. Robson , ' the proposal to close the literary canon is not a live option ' . " For Charles Hinnant , in the conclusion to his Steel for the Mind , Johnson ' sees absolutely no virtue in the kind of interpretive approach that ...
Inhalt
Personal History and the NonReductive | 15 |
Historicization and the Judgment of Shakespeare | 38 |
Johnson Reads Cowley | 64 |
Urheberrecht | |
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Johnson's Critical Presence: Image, History, Judgment Philip Smallwood Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2017 |
Johnson's Critical Presence: Image, History, Judgment Philip Smallwood Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2017 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
according appear attention authors called Cambridge canon century chapter characters classical collection comedy common conception context Cowley Cowley's critical history critical past cultural death detail distinction drama Dryden eighteenth-century emotional English Essay example experience expression final historians history of criticism human ideas imagination important James Gillray John Johnson's criticism Johnsonian judgment kind language later lines literary literary criticism literature Lives London manners meaning mind Miscellanies Mistress moral narrative nature notes observation once particular passage passions past play pleasure poem poet poetical poetry Pope Pope's praise Preface present prose Rambler reader reason reference reflects relation remarks romantic Samuel Johnson satirical scenes seems seen sense Shakespeare suggest theory things thought tradition tragedy translation University Press verse vols whole Wordsworth writes written wrote