scholarly journals Materialism As Intentionalism: on the Possibility of a „New Materialist” Literary Criticism

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Kaczmarski
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
New Method ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Historical Materialist ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Positive Method ◽  
Fredric Jameson ◽  
Materiality Of The Text

In this article, I draw on the work of authors associated with New Materialism(s) and the material turn, in order to examine and compare various ways of developing a „new materialist” literary criticism/literary theory. I then set these projects against a more traditional historical materialist perspective, as exemplified for instance by Fredric Jameson, in order to point out some fundamental differences between literary criticism focused on the imagined „true” materiality of the text and one that chooses to emphasise instead the inherent materiality of the work of literature as such (on all its levels). Here, the oft-discussed Marxist distinction between the base and the superstructure provides a good example of how these two approaches, though ostensibly similar, may in fact represent two very different, even contradictory schools of thought and criticism. My goal is not to criticise new materialists for not maintaining some imagined Marxist dogma, but rather, to point out how a nominal attachment to the materiality of text, when combined with a desire to invent a new method of reading, may result in a point of view that, even on its own terms, cannot be seen as materialist. Drawing on Fredric Jameson’s remarks on materialist criticism as a work of „demystification and de-idealisation” rather than a „positive” method, I then refer to the work of Walter Benn Michaels as an example of „negative” materialist criticism that, instead of providing us with a new way of „doing interpretation”, allows us to de-idealize the way we discuss literature.

scholarly journals NEW MATERIALISM: PROJECTIONS INTO LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM

2021 ◽  
pp. 153-159
Author(s):  
Mariya Shymchyshyn
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Object Oriented ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
New Historicism ◽  
New Criticism ◽  
Theory And Criticism ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Literary Theory And Criticism

The article considers the recent (re)turn to materiality in philosophy and theory, in particular, such schools as speculative realism and object-oriented philosophy. They offer rethinking of objects and criticism of anthropocentric worldview. The attention to materiality privileges matter, body, and nature. Theorists of New materialism reject the binary oppositions (nature/culture, human/nonhuman, etc.) and insist on intra-action as a new materialist orientation. The author argues that the new materialist critique of conventional critique will be useful for literary theory and criticism. According to Latour, critique should be productive and collaborative. As far as critical judgments rely on thelogic of representation that in its turn is based on similarity, analogy and opposition they restrict the analytic enterprise. Moreover, it is necessary to rethink conventional practices of interpretation and explanation. In this context, K. Barad proposes to substitute these strategies with the practice of ‘diffraction’. In the second part of the article, the author analyzes Graham Harman’s article The Well-Wrought Broken Hammer:Object-Oriented Literary Criticism. We pay attention to Harman’s critique of New Criticism, New Historicism, and Deconstruction in their contrast to object-oriented philosophy. In his analysis of New Criticism, Harman figures out the taxonomic fallacy within this theory. He argues against the idea that only poetry has all the non-prose sense while other disciplines have the literal sense. His second argument against New Criticism problematizes the unity of all the elementsin a literary work. Harman outlines the assumptions of New Historicism and points out that it turns everything into interrelated influences. Instead, he argues that contextuality is not universal. In his criticism of Deconstruction Harman underlines that Derrida wrongly believes that ontological realism automatically entails an epistemological realism. In his turn, Harman insists that the thing is deeper than its interactions are.

scholarly journals الإسلامية وسؤال النقد الأدبي (Islamization and the question of Literary Criticism)

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
بشرى عبد المجيد (Busyra Abdel Majid Takfrast)
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Critical Text ◽  
Critical Discourses ◽  
Islamic Values

ملخص البحث:كثيرة هي الخطابات النظرية والنقدية في العالم العربي، المهتمة بشأن النقد العربي قديمه وحديثه، وهذه الكثرة لا تدل بالضرورة على  وعي واستقامة لمقاربة النص النقدي بتلاوينه المختلفة طالما أن هذه الطروحات تذهب إلى إضفاء صدقية المنهج في الدراسة والتحليل أكثر مما تذهب إلى مقاربة النص النقدي بشكل لا يبدو فيه ازدياد وثراء وعمق، مما يجعل المتلقي يستقبله كعلامة دالة لمساءلة الظاهرة. وتحاول هذه الدراسة تأطير النقد الإسلامي ومعاييره المستنبطة من نظرية الأدب الإسلامي، ودوره في مواكبة العملية الإبداعية لضبط إيقاعها وفق نظرية أدبية معيارية إسلامية واضحة المعالم. ومقاربة لأسلمة النقد العربي والتأصيل الإسلامي للمقاييس النقدية التي تهدف إلى تأثيث سياق إعادة صياغة وبناء المعطيات المعرفية الإنسانية من منظور إسلامي. ومحاولة تجاوز المنقود على مستوى الرؤية والمنهج لإنجاح عملية القراءة التي ينطوي فعلها على تأويل المقروء.الكلمات المفتاحية: النقد الإسلامي- النقد الـأدبي- القيم الإسلامية- المعيارية- المعوقات. Abstract:Many of theoretical and critical discourses in the Arab world that focus on Arabic literary criticism be it traditional or modern, do not necessarily indicate an awareness and correctness in approaching critical text that come in different shades. This was possible as long as these discourses seem adhere to the integrity of method although they are surficial in their discussion. As a result, reader would understand that there are dealing with the some issues of a certain phenomenon. This study aims at putting the framework of Islamic criticism and defining its standards derived from Islamic literature. The role of Islamic criticism in keeping up with the creative process to ensure its compliance in accordance to a clear Islamic prescriptive literary theory. The approach to Islamacize Arabic literary criticism and the effort to establish its rooting in Islam is a part of the efforts to rearrange human knowledge in accordance to the Islamic point of view and to broaden the interpretation of the text itself.Keywords: Islamic Criticism – Literary Criticism – Islamic values – Prescriptive – Challenges. Abstrak:Teori wacana kritis sangat banyak dalam dunia Arab dan ia mengambil berat tentang kritikan sastera lama dan baru. Namun kebanyakannya tidak menunjukkan kesedaran yang konsisten kerana dalam usaha mendekatkan teks kritikan dengan demensi-demensi yang berbagai-bagai selagi cadangan-cadangan yang dilontar ini hanya tertumpu kepada methodologi kajian dan analisis lebih banyak daripada mendekatkan teks kritikan yang mana ia tidak membawa kepada penambahan dan kekayaan yang mana ia menjadikan penerima mengambilnya sebagai tanda yang menunjukkan permasalahan luaran. Kajian ini cuba meletakkan satu garis panduan dalam wacana kritis yang diambil berasaskan teori sastera islam berserta peranannya dalam mengikuti arus inovasi dan kreativiti bagi memastikan ia masih mengikuti piawaian yang digariskan islam.  Hal ini bertujuan untuk menghasilkan semula fakta-fakta yang berkaitan dgn kognisi seperti proses pembelajaran, pemahaman dan pemerolehan pengetahuan oleh manusia dari perspektif Islam dan cuba memberikan pandangan dari sudut methodologi bagi menjayakan proses pembacaan yang mengandungi banyak tafsiran.Kata kunci: Kritikan Islam – Kritikan Sastera – Nilai-Nilai Islam – Piawaian - Halangan .

Veiled Theory: The Transmutation of Anthropology in T. S. Eliot's Critical Method

Paragraph ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Trexler
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Philosophical Investigation ◽  
Institutional History ◽  
Human History ◽  
Critical Practice ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Historical Moment

While literary criticism is often seen as an unself-reflective forerunner to literary theory, this article argues that T.S. Eliot's theory of critical practice was a philosophically informed methodology of reading designed to create a disciplinary and institutional framework. To reconstruct this theory, it enriches theoretical methodology with intellectual and institutional history. Specifically, the article argues that Eliot's early critical theory depended on the paradigms of anthropology and occultism, developed during his philosophical investigation of anthropology and Leibniz. From this investigation, Eliot created an occult project that used spiritual monads as facts to progress toward the Absolute. The article goes on to argue that Eliot's methodology of reading was shaped by anthropology's and occultism's paradigms of non-academic, non-specialist reading societies that sought a super-historic position in human history through individual progress. The reconstruction of Eliot's intellectual and institutional framework for reading reveals a historical moment with sharp differences and surprising similarities to the present.

lmost all estimates of the figure of Alexander Solzhenitsyn are not related to literary criticism. Most studies evaluate his role, intentions and results. His figure is assessed in the context of the fate of the country, public perception and attitude to the country, which is Motherland for some, and mental and political enemy for the others. And for this purpose it is not even important who is right from the historical and political point of view. The point is who and how perceived the USSR and the entire Soviet project. Solzhenitsyn is seen as the enemy of the USSR and the Soviet project by those who popularized and helped him, and also according to his self-evaluation. Therefore, for those who identify themselves with the Soviet Union, its heritage and the entire Soviet project Solzhenitsyn represents the enemy and bearer of evil. For those who are hostile to the Soviet Union and the Soviet project, Solzhenitsyn is an ally in their struggle and bearer of good. Which of these parties is right is the issue of history and morality. 66% of Russian citizens support the first point of view, and the second point of view is supported by 25% of the population. Nowadays 88 % of Russian citizens know who Solzhenitsyn was. 31% consider him to be moral authority for them. 8% of the people believe that Solzhenitsyn presented true facts in his books.

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 260-275
Author(s):  
Victor V.  Aksyuchits
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
Russian Intelligentsia

In the article the author studies the formation process of Russian intelligentsia analyzing its «birth marks», such as nihilism, estrangement from native soil, West orientation, infatuation with radical political ideas, Russophobia. The author examines the causes of political radicalization of Russian intelligentsia that grew swiftly at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries and played an important role in the Russian revolution of 1917.

Bleibende Aufgaben einer phänomenologischen Literaturtheorie

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-273
Author(s):  
Eckhard Lobsien
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Radical Theory ◽  
Theory Of Reading ◽  
Phenomenological Point

Abstract What sort of object is a literary text? From a phenomenological point of view - phenomenology considered as both a radical theory of reading and a theory of radical reading - a range of answers arise, many of them tinged with deconstructive momentum. This paper aims at pointing out some basic issues in reading literary texts, offering ten theses on the enduring tasks of phenomenological literary theory.

The Head, the Hand, and Matter: New Materialism and the Politics of Knowledge

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 49-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Rekret
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Karen Barad ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Do So

This article seeks to examine the political connotations of a recent ‘material turn’ in social and political theory and its implications for theorizations of political agency. ‘New materialist’ theories are premised upon transcending the limits which social constructivism places upon thought, viewed as a reification of the division of subject and object and so a hubristic anthropocentrism which places human beings at the centre of social existence. Yet new materialist theories have tended to locate the conditions of the separation of mind and world they seek to overcome upon the terrain of epistemic or ethical error. By taking the work of Quentin Meillassoux, Jane Bennett and Karen Barad as exemplary, this article contends that new materialist theories not only fall short of their own materialist pretensions insofar as they do not interrogate the material conditions of the separation of the mental and material, but that the failure to do so has profound repercussions for the success of their accounts of political agency. This essay seeks to offer a counter-narrative to new materialist theories by situating the hierarchy between thought and world as a structural feature of capitalist social relations.

scholarly journals TEORI HARMONI PENGANTAR KAJIAN SASTRA BERBASIS KONSTITUSI

Paramasastra ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aprinus Salam
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
The West ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Safe Condition

Literary studies can not be separated from the literary theory initiated and developed by “Western” scholars. Indonesian Literature also refers to these theories in interpreting and explaining literary works. This paper intends to ask the historical contextuality and the theoretical independence of Indonesian literature as a nation that has a historicity different from the West. The main offer in this paper is the importance of a theory called the theory of harmony-constitution. The important objectives of the theoretical point of view of the theory of harmony-the constitution are 1) all efforts to build an independent society and social justice, 2) a happy and safe condition, and hence the freedom that has been achieved should always encourage unity, sovereignty and prosperity, and 3) the acknowledgment “on the blessings of almighty God and by the noble driven.” Methodologically, the theory of harmony-constitution is based on semantics. This theory can be used to analyze social and cultural issues, but in the case of this paper will be tested to study literary works, especially the poetry of Chairil Anwar.

scholarly journals Entre La Creación Y La Crí­tica Literaria. Letras De Alfonso Reyes Y Martí­n Luis Guzmán

Xihmai ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (17) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Lincoln Strange Reséndiz
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Alfonso Reyes ◽  
Personal Interests

  ¡Pobre hombre de Dios! El mundo está necesitado de realidades externas, objetivas, vulgares, y Usted a través del zodiaco de sus cartas actuales se me esfuma en radiosas visiones de poetas o se me rompe en un fracaso de cristales… CARTA DE REYES A GUZMÁN, 1914. Resumen El presente artí­culo analiza la crí­tica literaria contenida en la correspondencia que mantuvieron los Ateneí­stas Alfonso Reyes y Martí­n Luis Guzmán, a partir de 1913 y hasta 1959. Dichas cartas exponen el punto de vista de ambos autores sobre la configuración de la obra propia y la ajena. La correspondencia dibuja un panorama de la relación í­ntima entre Reyes y Guzmán, que se vio afectada desde un momento temprano en la vida de ambos, debido al estallido de la Revolución Mexicana y a partir de la Decena trágica, en la que fallece Bernardo Reyes. El resultado de sus intereses personales se manifiesta en estas cartas; Reyes se muestra como autor cosmopolita y Guzmán como un narrador con profundas preocupaciones polí­ticas. Palabras clave: Literatura, crí­tica, correspondencia, Reyes, Guzmán. Abstract   This article analyzes the literary criticism that exists in the letters written by Alfonso Reyes and Martin Luis Guzman, from 1913 and until 1959. These letters outlined the point of view of both authors on setting their own work and that of others. The correspondence paints a picture of the intimate relationship between Reyes and Guzman, who were affected from an early stage in the life of both, due to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution and from La Decena trágica, in which Bernardo Reyes dies. The results of their personal interests are manifested in those letters; Reyes is seen as a cosmopolitan author and Guzman as a writer with deep political concerns.   Keywords: Literature, criticism, correspondence, Reyes, Guzmán.

scholarly journals Alterações dimensionais em pastas de óxido de zinco/eugenol: um novo método para sua mensuração

2021 ◽  
pp. 39-55
Author(s):  
Léo Werner Süffert ◽  
Ennio Pessôa
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
High Variability ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
New Method ◽  
Extensive Review ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Dimensional Changes ◽  
Impression Materials ◽  
Clinical Point

After an extensive review of the literature, regarding zinc.oxide/eugenol impression pastes, we selected 20 of the most representatives as our references. Trough personal information of several of the investigators it was discovered that dimensional changes of theese materials is one of the most difficult properties to be measured. A new method was developed to measure dimensional changes ot 4 (four) of the most widely used zinc.oxide/eugenol impression materials in Brazil. The results, presented through several graphs and tables showed that dimensional changes varied from 0,003%, values which may probably be considered negligible from a clinical point of view. We noticed, however, high values for standard deviation and variance which indicate the high variability within the experiments. Those values were not found when we used the same method with mercaptan and silicone impression materials, in which the measurement of dimensional changes was highly reproducible. One hypothesis (which we intend to investigate in a later research) is that, during storage, a sedimentation could occur, of the components of greater density! Consequently ther might result a change in composition, independent of the method used to establishe the proportion of the two pastes, be it by wheight or measurement of lenght, which could be the cause of variability of the composition of each mixture!

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