The Art of Discrimination
The Art of Discrimination

Author: Ralph Cohen

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2021-12-29

Total Pages: 584

ISBN-13: 1000514897

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First published in 1964, The Art of Discrimination is a study in the relation between critical theory and practice, taking as its test-case James Thomson’s The Seasons, the poem which was, according to Johnson, of "a new kind". Professor Cohen explores the different applications of criticism from 1750 to 1950, analysing specific interpretations of the poem that altered, contradicted or supported poetic theory. In doing so, he introduces new techniques to supplement traditional critical commentary: illustrations are treated as interpretations and critical language is related to non-literary as well as literary information. In treating the history of critical interpretation, the reprinting of editions and past interpretations are considered along with contemporary statements as necessary to define a literary period. The book offers alternatives to theories of organicism and to those of the arbitrariness of literary history by defining the kinds of continuities that exist in criticism. As analysis of criticism, it studies how men think about literature, the extent to which such thinking resists systematization and those elements in it which can be controlled and organized and transmitted. The book will appeal to students of literature and critical theory.

The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 6, The Nineteenth Century, c.1830–1914
The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 6, The Nineteenth Century, c.1830–1914

Author: M. A. R. Habib

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-02-07

Total Pages: 796

ISBN-13: 1316175170

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In the nineteenth century, literary criticism first developed into an autonomous, professional discipline in the universities. This volume provides a comprehensive and authoritative study of the vast field of literary criticism between 1830 and 1914. In over thirty essays written from a broad range of perspectives, international scholars examine the growth of literary criticism as an institution, and the major critical developments in diverse national traditions and in different genres, as well as the major movements of Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism and Decadence. The History offers a detailed focus on some of the era's great critical figures, such as Sainte-Beuve, Hippolyte Taine and Matthew Arnold, and includes essays devoted to the connections of literary criticism with other disciplines in science, the arts and Biblical studies. The publication of this volume marks the completion of the monumental Cambridge History of Literary Criticism from antiquity to the present day.