Learning Task #2 *Survey of Literary Theories*

Name:Eula Mayze C. Pitogo Course/Year/Section:ABLit 1

Directions: Read pages 11-36 of Peter Barry’s “Beginning Theory”. Then supply the chart below in
order to complete the survey of literary theorizing from Aristotle-Leavis, Structuralism and
Post-structuralism. An example is given below. You may adjust the grids accordingly.

Key Seminar Significant Views on Literary

Figure/Movement Work/Text Theory

1. Aristotle Poetics Work is on the nature of literature itself: of

tragedy, (literature is about character, and that
character is revealed through action in the
plot); the first critic to develop a
“reader-centered” approach to literature.
1. Sir Philip Sydney Literary Often cited as an archetype of the well-rounded
Criticism/Poet “Renaissance man”: his talents were multifold,
encompassing not only poetry and cultivated
learning but also the virtues of statesmanship and
military service.
1. Samuel Johnson English Historian/ Reflecting a life blighted by experiences of
Poet poverty and disease, and a desire to escape from
pain. Painting a striking portrait of one of the
most vigorous intellects of the eighteenth
century, this work remains of interest to literary
scholars today.
1. William Wordsworth Poetic Wordsworth also showed his affinity for nature
with the famous poem "I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud." He became England's poet laureate in
1843, a role he held until his death in 1850.
1. Samuel Taylor Poet- critic Distinguished for the scope and influence of his
Coleridge thinking about literature as much as for his
innovative verse. Active in the wake of the
French Revolution as a dissenting pamphleteer
and lay preacher, he inspired a brilliant
generation of writers and attracted the patronage
of progressive men of the rising middle class.
1. Percy Bysshe Shelley English Romantic Exemplify English Romanticism in both its
writer/ Poet extremes of joyous ecstasy and brooding despair.
Romanticism’s major themes—restlessness and
brooding, rebellion against authority, interchange
with nature, the power of the visionary
imagination and of poetry, the pursuit of ideal
love, and the untamed spirit ever in search of
freedom
1. John Keats English Romantic Devoted for his short life to the perfection of a
lyric poet poetry marked by vivid imagery, great sensuous
appeal, and an attempt to express a philosophy
through classical legend.

1. Matthew Arnold Poet and Social Recommended for cultures as a great help out of
commentators our present difficulties; culture being a pursuit of
our total perfection by means of getting to know,
on all the matters which most concern us, the
best which has been thought and said in the
world
1. T.S. Eliot English poet, Eliot stresses the importance of the writer’s
playwright, and awareness of the past, of tradition and of the
literary critic “historical sense.”
1. F.R. Leavis Literary and Social For Leavis, literature was a criticism of life, the
critic/ Educationalist most effective way of training intelligence and
sensibility. He saw literature as a discipline of
thought, a "vitalizing force". Behind Leavis's
authoritative critiques there is both a concern for
the artistic values a work embodies and a moral
concern.
1. William Empson English critic and Reflected his knowledge of the sciences and
poet technology, which he used as metaphors in his
largely pessimistic assessment of the human lot.
1. I.A. Richards English critic, poet, Richards would give students poems in which
and teacher the titles and authors’ names had been removed
and then use their responses for further
development of their “close reading” skills.
1. Rene Wellek Structuralist/ Writer The great virtue of the History is Wellek's
insistence on examining all the writings of each
critic he studies, on confronting them with the
literary works they discuss, and on setting forth
his own reactions to both as
clearly and fairly as possible.
1. Structuralism Interpreting and Structuralism is a mode of knowledge of nature
Analysing and human life that is interested in relationships
rather than individual objects or, alternatively,
where objects are defined by the set of
relationships of which they are part and not by
the qualities possessed by them taken in
isolation.
1. Post-structuralism Facts and belief/ encourages a way of looking at the world that
Language challenges what comes to be accepted as 'truth'
and 'knowledge'.