Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Literary criticism as an institution
- II National developments in literary criticism
- III Critical movements and patterns of influence
- IV Later nineteenth-century developments: Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism and Decadence
- V Some major critics of the period
- VI Genre criticism
- 26 Theories of genre
- 27 Theories of the novel
- 28 Theories of poetry
- 29 Theories of drama
- VII Literature and other disciplines
- Select bibliography and further reading
- Index
28 - Theories of poetry
from VI - Genre criticism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
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Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Literary criticism as an institution
- II National developments in literary criticism
- III Critical movements and patterns of influence
- IV Later nineteenth-century developments: Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism and Decadence
- V Some major critics of the period
- VI Genre criticism
- 26 Theories of genre
- 27 Theories of the novel
- 28 Theories of poetry
- 29 Theories of drama
- VII Literature and other disciplines
- Select bibliography and further reading
- Index
Summary
Anarchy rules the wide field of literature in every country. This chapter focuses on Wilhelm Dilthey's assurance that poetic theory is equal to the task of bringing this anarchic field of literature under the critic's control. Language imposes the conditions relevant to the art of poetry, and Victor Cousin finds these conditions to be the most conducive to the expressive ends of the arts. Cousin's expressivism would appear to coincide in many respects with the theory of poetry advanced by his younger compatriot, Charles Baudelaire, whose critical writings echo Cousin's supreme rule. Understood as beautiful objects, poems are part of what Marx called the superstructure of a society. Literary criticism gave rise to a discipline of human sciences that has much in common with the cultural poetics characteristic of the new historicism which arose a full century after the publication of Dilthey's Poetics.
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- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism , pp. 524 - 538Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013