Period Study

Literary criticism – art or science? attempts at a scientific approach - linguistics as a starting point close reading a systematic study of literature and its phenomena University curricula: based on literary kinds based on literary periods based on individual authors based on literary theories

Literature in context literary periods in a cultural context Raymond Williams: art and society seen together: 'culture' as a total expression of a way of life Cultural Studies: contemporary, popular Period Study: various forms of art within a historical period in a social, political context

How to recognize a period? dominant features (Roman Jakobson, early 20th c): foregrounded elements – in a period – in a work of art borderline cases – all boundarydrawing is strategic (See: Brian McHale, Postmodernist Fiction)

Dominant qualities Dominant qualities colour most elements of intellectual life in a given culture at a certain time - also influence art, music, architecture, landscape, gardening, philosophy, politics a few broad tendencies in common at a high level of abstraction with individual, temporal, local variations subordinate currents as well as dominant ones declining and emergent energies e.g., New Historicism takes this line of study

How to examine a literary period: how it is framed by a set of significant events The Renaissance in England, for example: the first visit of Erasmus (1499), Caxton's printing press at Westminster (1476), the discovery of America (1492), the court of the young Henry VIII (on the throne: ), the Protestant Reformation, Copernicus's new astronomy (1543), the reign of Elizabeth I ( )

How to examine a literary period: priorities in its views features certain priorities in its views concerning the world and art e.g., in Classicism: balance, form, proportion, propriety (good taste, good manners correctness, otherwise known as decorum), dignity, simplicity, objectivity, rationality, restraint, responsibility (rather than self- expression), unity (rather than diversity)

How to examine a literary period: views of humans, favourite genres promotes a certain view of humankind e.g., in Romanticism: the celebration of the individual uses specific genres (rather than others) e.g., in 19th c. Realism: the novel with its details, its particularisation of the lives of ordinary people

How to examine a literary period: favourite subjects, favourite forms favours certain subjects for art e.g., in Modernism: inner individual perception (impressionistic presentation, stream of consciousness technique, such as in Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway) shows characteristic formal elements (including the example above) e.g., in Postmodernism: Narcissistic narrative: intruding into one's own fiction to ponder upon its powers

Literary trend vs cultural period A literary trend may not correspond exactly to a cultural period! e.g., Postmodernism or the Post-Modern Period history of literature: allusion,intertextuality - interdependence of texts through genre, conventions vs traditional notions of influence: study of direct sources

How is literature read, or judged? Yet another way of looking at literature: how it was read, by whom, how it was judged readership, horizon(s) of expectations (Hans Robert Jauss) How do you judge a piece of literature? Do you have to ? Should you? Can you avoid doing so? How do you select a work or period to be studied? Can evaluation change reading? Can evaluation prevent reading?

Literary period: horizontal or vertical study The history of literature The study of High Modernism 1928 in literature in England in the historical context of the UK in the artistic or social or political context of Continental Europe in the life of Virginia Woolf

The Sick Rose William Blake (1794) O Rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

A Red, Red Rose Robert Burns (1796) 0 my luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung In June; 0 my luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gangdry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun: 0 I will luve thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run. And fare thee weel, my only luve, And fare thee weel awhile! And I will come again, my luve, Though it were ten thousand mile.

One perfect rose Dorothy Parker (1926) A single flow'r he sent me, since we met. All tenderly his messenger he chose; Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet - One perfect rose. I knew the language of the floweret; 'My fragile leaves', it said, 'his heart enclose'. Love long has taken for his amulet One perfect rose. Why is it no one ever sent me yet One perfect limousine, do you suppose? Ah, no, it's always just my luck to get One perfect rose.

Rose is a rose is a rose Gertrude Stein, Sacred Emily, 1913 ' Yes, I’m no fool; but I think that in that line the rose is red for the first time in English poetry for a hundred years." (Stein, Four in America)