scholarly journals Archetypal Literary Theory in the Postmodern Era

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darrell Dobson

I propose that differentiating the archetype and the archetypal image provides a means of responding to some postmodern critiques of archetypal theory. I consider the literary theories of Northrop Frye and a postmodern feminist critique of his work.  I hypothesize that a more fully Jungian perspective on archetypal theory provides a means of responding to the critiques levelled at Frye.  This analysis hopes to contribute to positioning archetypal theory in such a manner as to allow it to remain cogent and relevant in light of postmodern critiques, and to do so without marginalizing or ignoring postmodern theoretical insights. 

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 274-291
Author(s):  
Andrea Polaschegg

Abstract Tracing the transformations phenomenological thought underwent in the sphere of literary studies after the 1930s, the paper outlines the epistemological potential of this tradition in regards to a proper understanding of the phenomenon ›text‹. Proceeding from reflections on the agonal relation between structuralistic and phenomenological traditions within contemporary literary theory, the article focuses on Husserl’s apprehension of texts as being »objects in procedure« by exploring the impact of this idea on the literary theories of Ingarden, Wellek, and Iser. In light of the - largely forgotten - fact that Karl Bühler’s pioneering Language Theory (1934) is mainly based on phenomenological thinking, the paper finally discusses to what extend Bühler’s idea of verbal expressions figuring as effective events could open a new space for the development of a literary theory of texts within recent debates on the »media of literature«.


Werkwinkel ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 65-88
Author(s):  
Timothy Pareit

Abstract Although scholars in the Netherlands have already attempted to integrate literary theories on migration with the specific Dutch context, none such attempts have so far been made for Flemish literature. The current paper therefore scrutinises the novel Los by Tom Naegels, an (autobiographical) account of the riots in Borgerhout (Antwerp) after the murder on Islam teacher Mohamed Achrak in 2002. As the author also covered these events as a journalist, the analysis investigates the manner in which this topical matter is intertwined with the more personal story about the struggle conducted by Naegels’s grandfather for euthanasia. The paper leans on Jérôme Meizoz’s posture theory, which differentiates the author figure from the biographical person and the narrator. In addition, the novel is situated within the contemporary literary return towards realism and Flemish literature’s negotiation of Flemish identity. By focussing on these three elements – the theme of migration, realism and Flemish identity – the paper attempts to contribute to the development of a literary theory on migration in Flanders.


PMLA ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 924-930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Fludernik

Literary theory in the twentieth century was heavily influenced by linguistics. The structuralist model that set the waves of literary theories in motion originated in Saussurean linguistics and its Jakobsonian elaborations. One could argue that until the 1980s all literary theory, and all linguistics for that matter, was based on an analysis of langue, or the system of language or literature or text, to the detriment of parole, the practices, contexts, and negotiations of speakers, writers, and readers. The structuralist model, with its theoretical expansion of close-reading practices, already entrenched in the wake of the New Criticism, generalized the frame of mind that was soon to become the bogeyman of poststructuralist and cultural studies attacks. The formula could be summarized as No history, no ethics, no themes, no aesthetics, and no context—period.


2016 ◽  
pp. 160-181
Author(s):  
Ilija Upalevski

Central Europe – a community of texts. Intertextuality as a  plane of functioning and maintaining the myth of Central EuropeIn this article I examine two primary (sets of) questions:1. How, why and by whom the concept of Central Europe has been (re)constructed, (re)defined and (re)imagined within the field of literature in the course of the 20th century(?); and2. Through what transformations this concept has gone during the major social and political shifts in the region(?). In order to do so I am employing Roland Barthes’ semiological approach on myth in the analysis of the texts in which concept and the myth of Central Europe is constituted. I argue that these texts, creating the myth of Central Europe, use/adopt/resemantize texts/signs which previously functioned in other semiological systems. While the so called Habsburg Myth is its core structural element, the myth of Central Europe adopts/reinterprets even such cultural texts in relation to which it stands in ideological opposition – for example the myth of national tragedy. Referring to the concept of discourse community, introduced and developed in the linguistics and literary theory by John Swales, as well as to the concept of intertextuality, I argue that Central Europe can be approached as a community of texts within which the notion of the Central-Europeanness is (re)evaluated, (re)imagined and thus historically maintained. Europa Środkowa – wspólnota tekstów. Intertekstualność jako przestrzeń funkcjonowania i podtrzymywania mitu środkowoeuropejskiegoW niniejszym artykule zajmuję się pytaniami: jak, dlaczego i przez kogo pojęcie Europy Środkowej zostało społecznie zrekonstruowane w literaturze regionu na przestrzeni XX wieku oraz jak przybiegała jego transmisja/dystrybucja w zmieniających się kontekstach społeczno-politycznych. By odpowiedzieć na te pytania, semiologiczne podejście do mitu Rolanda Barthesa zostanie zastosowane w analizie tekstów budujących pojęcia, ale także mit Europy Środkowej. Analiza ta ma pokazać, że myślenie w kategoriach Europy Środkowej aktywizuje się w chwili dodatkowej semantyzacji znaków/tekstów istniejących już wcześniej w innych systemach semiologicznych. Podczas gdy tzw. mit habsburski jest jego podstawowym elementem strukturalnym, mit Europy Środkowej nawiązuje także do takich tekstów kultury, w stosunku do których stoi w opozycji – na przykład mit tragedii narodowej. Odwołując się do koncepcji wspólnoty dyskursywnej, wprowadzonej do językoznawstwa i teorii literatury przez Johna Swalesa, jak również do pojęcia intertekstualności, zakładam, że Europa Środkowa istnieje w postaci pewnej wspólnoty tekstów, w której pojęcie środkowoeuropejskości jest negocjowane, oceniane i wyobrażane na nowo.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41
Author(s):  
Khaled Besbes

AbstractThe present article is written almost a decade and a half after the reticent announcement of the death of literary theory by a number of scholars around the world. But during all these years, the humanities have not managed to drive Theory out of the seminar rooms of English departments, nor have the anti-theory proponents managed to remove it from the syllabi of English studies or even from the shelves of specialized libraries. After all these years, English studies academicians find themselves still doing Theory: holding conferences on how to conduct literary studies, organizing debates on how to launch new approaches that could possibly replace critical theories, and encouraging research into less-theorized methods of literary interpretation that could respond to the ineluctable need for a method in studying literature. For good or ill, whether we admit it or not, the echoes of literary theories continue to linger behind the scenes of all debates about literature and literary studies. The question is therefore not how to bring those echoes to silence, but rather how to find a way out of the post-theory deadlock by proposing what I have chosen to name the semeiocritical method as a theory-inspired, rather than theory-based approach to literature. The present article seeks to answer two questions: (1) how can we benefit from the lessons of literary theory without systematically doing theory or being methodically loyal to theories? and (2) how can we maximize the effects of literary interpretation in such a way as to cover as many aspects as possible of the signifying processes in the literary text while maintaining interpretive consistency?


Author(s):  
Chinedu Nwadike ◽  
Chibuzo Onunkwo

Literary theories have arisen to address some perceived needs in the critical appreciation of literature but flipside theory is a novelty that fills a gap in literary theory. By means of a critical look at some literary theories particularly Formalism, Marxism, structuralism, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and feminism but also Queer theory, New Criticism, New Historicism, postcolonialism, and reader-response, this essay establishes that a gap exists, which is the lack of a literary theory that laser-focuses on depictions of victims of social existence (people who simply for reasons of where and when they are born, where they reside and other unforeseen circumstances are pushed to the margins). Flipside criticism investigates whether such people are depicted as main characters in works of literature, and if so, how they impact society in very decisive ways such as causing the rise or fall of some important people, groups or social dynamics while still characterized as flipside society rather than developed to flipview society. While flipside literary criticism can be done on any work of literature, only works that distinctively provide this kind of plot can lay claim to being flipside works. This essay also distinguishes flipside theory from others that multitask such as Marxism, which explores the economy and class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and feminism, which explores depictions of women (the rich and the poor alike) and issues of sex and gender. In addition, flipside theory underscores the point that society is equally constituted by both flipview society and flipside society like two sides of a coin.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. p122
Author(s):  
Cheng Zhang

In literary translation, the way quality of translation is judged shows some special features. The translator’s understanding of the source language text and his creative reconstruction of the target language text place the whole process of translation under the influence of literary theories. With a case analysis of three different translation versions of John Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn, this paper argues that based on the given features of literary translation, the relationships between the translator and the text, and the creative role of the translator in the process of translation, literary theory plays an essential role in literary translation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Prashant Keshavmurthy

Abstract Can we read ʿAbd al-Qādir Bedil’s (1644–1720) oeuvre in ways that socialize it against his own pervasive Sufi posture of ascetic distance from everyday social exchanges? What kind of selfhood comes into view if we do so? Of all the genres Bedil wrote in, his correspondence best allows us such a socialization. This essay explores Bedil’s epistolary voice in terms of a tension between the trans-mundane ghazal metaphors he uses in his letters and the mundane specificities of each epistolary situation. It puts this voice into relation with prior models of Persian epistolography (inshā), with Arabic-Persian literary theories of wonder in Bedil’s milieu and with models of Sufi wit, reflecting on what his appropriations of these genres allowed him in each case. It concludes by reflecting on how Bedil’s voice might be understood in the wider contexts of non-European practices of civility and the order of mimesis it assumes.


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