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Literary Criticism Timeline
Literary Criticism Timeline
Literary Criticism Timeline
Timeline
James Madison Gathered these Facts
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Literature and art can be enjoyed in two ways: arbitrarily, as a lay man enjoys it, and
methodically as a trained person does. While an untrained consumer of an artistic product will
derive pleasure, seldom aware of the constructs that are at play in producing the effect; a trained
individual will derive jouissance -a kind of ecstasy- in deriving the manifold meanings that are at
play in a work, delving into the possible interpretations, its origins, historical and sociological
impacts et al. It is the latter mode of reading a text that is called literary criticism.
English literary criticism per se began as late as the sixteenth century. It was only after the
Renaissance, when the Greek and Latin treatises on criticism became available to the English
scholars did they apply their critical skills to literary texts. The foundations however, had already
been laid by the Greek and the Roman writers in the fifth century B.C
The history of literary criticism can be dated back to ancient Greece approx. fifth century B.C.
The aim of criticism is to interrogate and closely scrutinize the work under discussion and thus it
required an atmosphere which allowed a free play of critical ideas. The fifth century Athens was
a period of intellectual awakening when scholars debated freely on all subjects and thus opened a
platform for literary criticism to flourish. Some of the important fonder literary critics are
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Socrates, Aristophanes- dramatists and critics who lived during
this period.
Although literary criticism in England came into practice in the sixteenth century, the influence
of the following Greek and Roman Masters have remained overpowering ever since. When
stating a timeline of English literary criticism, it therefore becomes vital to state the influences
and work onwards to the present day English Literary criticism.
The Greek Influence: Important Influential Literary Critics and their Critical
Tenets
Condemns Poetry
Mimesis
Observations on Tragedy
Hamartia
Peripetia
Anagnorisis
Hubris
Catharsis
The Roman Influence: Important Influential Literary Critics and their Critical
Tenets
Classicism
Observations on Poetry, Drama and Satire
Quintillian
Observation on Style
Sublimity
Dryden (Dr. Johnson called him The Father of English Criticism) (1631-1700)
Addison (1672-1719)
Concept of Nature
Concept of Judgement in Literary Criticism
Concept of Wit
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Theory of Imagination
Concept of Poetic Genius
Criticism of Wordsworth’s theory of Poetic Language
Shelley( 1792-1822)
John Keats
Negative Capability
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