English 300 New Criticism: Emerged in the 1930s, partly as a response to the emphasis upon memorization and historical-biographical details of the historical approach

English 300 New Criticism: Emerged in the 1930s, partly as a response to the emphasis upon memorization and historical-biographical details of the historical approach Realized Babbitt’s “culture camp” ideals

English 300 New Criticism: Emerged in the 1930s, partly as a response to the emphasis upon memorization and historical-biographical details of the historical approach Realized Babbitt’s “culture camp” ideals Corresponded to the “Fugitive” movement in literature and criticism Fugitive Manifesto: I’ll Take My Stand: The South and Agrarian Culture (1930)

English 300 New Criticism: Emerged in the 1930s, partly as a response to the emphasis upon memorization and historical-biographical details of the historical approach Realized Babbitt’s “culture camp” ideals Corresponded to the “Fugitive” movement in literature and criticism Fugitive Manifesto: I’ll Take My Stand: The South and Agrarian Culture (1930) John Crowe Ransom, The New Criticism (1941) Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, Understanding Poetry (1938) Understanding Fiction (1943)

English 300 New Criticism: Radically ahistorical Ostensibly apolitical In its theoretical statements, New Criticism asserted that all literary value inhered in the text itself—therefore, details pertaining to the following considerations were irrelevant: the author’s life and intentions the social and historical contexts of the texts production and reception the reader’s background and concerns

English 300 New Criticism: Key theoretical statements: W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley, “The Intentional Fallacy”The Intentional Fallacy W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley, “The Affective Fallacy”

English 300 Structuralism and Myth Criticism: Roman Jakobsen Drew on the Structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure Was a member of the Moscow Linguistics Circle Northrop Frye Drew on the theories of Karl Jung Saw literary patterns corresponding to climate seasons Roland Barthes Extended Jakobsen’s structuralist theories to popular culture as well as literature

English 300 Poststructuralism Jacques Derrida Critiqued the “metaphysics of presence” in Western philosophical tradition Michel Foucault Concept of “micro-histories” Argued that meaning is contingent, and discursively produced Madness and Civilization The Birth of the Clinic The Archaeology of Knowledge

English 300 In the western philosophical tradition since Plato, “truth” is seen as absolute Derrida’s critique suggests that we can only recognize the “+” sign because we are aware of the possibility of its opposite—something that is not “plus”

English 300

This doesn’t even have to be something that is opposed to the positive presence— simple absence of the present is the “not-present”

English 300 This doesn’t even have to be something that is opposed to the positive presence— simple absence of the present is the “not-present.” Derrida’s argument suggests that in order for us to recognize and value the positive term—the “good,” the “real,” the “natural,” etc.—there has to be the possibility of something else to which it can be compared. Hence: Good Man Nature Black ______________________________________________________________________ Evil Woman Society White All of these oppositions, he argues, are historically and socially contingent.

English 300

English 300: Senior Seminar Professor: Ron Strickland Phone: Office: Stevenson Hall, 333-D Hours: 8:30-9:30 TR