Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms

671 Pages·1993·54.12 MB·English

by  Irena Makaryk

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
CONTEMPORARY LITERARY THEORY
Approaches, Scholars, Terms
The last half of the twentieth century has witnessed a revolution in literary studies.
Drawing on a vast network of other disciplines - such as philosophy, anthropology,
linguistics, political economy, sociology, women's studies, religion - the new literary
theories are not only changing traditional boundaries and issues of literary study, but
also questioning the very foundations of Western thought.
Irena R. Makaryk has compiled a welcome guide to this complex field. The Encyclo-
pedia of Contemporary Literary Theory surveys this enormous range of literary theories,
theorists, and critical terms, and provides lucid explanations of each.
A distinguished international group of 170 scholars has contributed to this three-part
volume. In Part i, forty-eight evaluative essays examine the historical and cultural con-
text out of which new schools and approaches to literature arose, the uses and limita-
tions of each, and the key issues they address. A bibliographical essay on theory and
pedagogy concludes this section; it suggests some of the ways that the theoretical is-
sues have altered and will continue to alter ways of teaching literature.
Focusing on individual theorists, Part 2 examines their achievements, influence, and
their place in the larger critical context.
Part 3 deals with the vocabulary of literary theory. It identifies significant, complex
terms, and explains their origins and use.
Accessibility is a key feature of the work. Bibliographies for each entry and extensive
cross-referencing throughout make the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory an
indispensable tool for literary theorists and historians, and for all scholars of contem-
porary criticism and culture.
1RENA R. MAKARYK is Chair of Graduate English Studies at the University of Ottawa.
She is the author of Comic Justice in Shakespeare, editor of and contributor to 'Living
Record': Essays in Memory of Constantine Bida, and translator and editor of About the
Harrowing of Hell: A jyth-Century Ukrainian Play in Its European Context.
Advisory Board
Linda Hutcheon, University of Toronto
Patrick Imbert, University of Ottawa
Louis Kelly, University of Ottawa
Camille R. La Bossiere, University of Ottawa
Sheldon P. Zitner, University of Toronto
Editorial Assistant
Micheline White
E N C Y C L O P E D IA
OF C O N T E M P O R A RY
LITERARY THEORY
Approaches, Scholars, Terms
IRENA R. MAKARYK
General Editor and Compiler
U N I V E R S I TY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 1993
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
Paperback reprinted 1993,1994,1995,1997, 2000
Hardcover reprinted 1995
ISBN 0-8020-5914-7 (cloth)
ISBN o-8o20-686o-x (paper)
Printed on acid-free paper
Theory/Culture
General editors: Linda Hutcheon and Paul Perron
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Encyclopedia of contemporary literary theory
(Theory/culture)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8020-5914-7 (bound)
ISBN o-8o2o-686o-x (pbk.)
i. Criticism - Encyclopedias,
i. Makaryk, Irena Rima, 1951-
ii. Series.
PN8i.E63 1993 801'.95 C92-095270-4
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the
financial assistance to its publishing program of
the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the
financial support for its publishing activities of
the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program
(BPIDP).
Canada
Contents
Introduction vii
Contributors xi
1 APPROACHES 3
Theory and Pedagogy 218
2 SCHOLARS 223
3 TERMS 503
List of entries 653
This page intentionally left blank
Introduction
'A man with one theory is lost. He needs several of them, or lots!
He should stuff them in his pockets like newspapers.'
Bertolt Brecht
One hundred and seventy eminent scholars not meant to be complete, this volume is in-
from around the world have helped create this tended to suggest something of the immense
book. Gathered from various departments - scope of current theoretical approaches. In es-
Religion, Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, tablishing the list of entries, the editor con-
Linguistics, Women's Studies, English, Modern sulted a variety of sources, including the
Languages, French, Political Science, Compara- PMLA annual bibliographical listings under lit-
tive Literature, Slavic Studies, Translation, erary criticism and theory, the most-cited au-
Administration - the contributors to this ency- thors in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index,
clopedia suggest, by the very diversity of their Current Comments, and an array of mono-
affiliations, the rich variety of contemporary graphs and bibliographies on contemporary
theory. theory. The schools, approaches and theorists
Yet this book in itself may be perceived as a were generally selected on the basis of their
kind of literary paradox - a strange platypus - most-frequently cited status. In a few other
for the beast described here not only resists cases, such as Quebec feminism and some Eu-
classification (not an uncommon characteristic ropean approaches, the decision for inclusion
of any discipline) but even rejects the very was based on the desire to make more widely
nature of this task. Simply by being, this en- known to an anglophone audience the work of
cyclopedia is an offence to some of the very lesser-known but important theories.
subject-matter with which it deals - the 'new At the core of this volume is the attempt to
new theory' which questions the apparent tra- delineate the different kinds of approaches
dition into which this genre of work falls: the and schools since New Criticism, that is, the
encyclopedia. Many schools, approaches and trends, tendencies and critics who have com-
theorists discussed here attack such 'magister- manded attention over the past 50 years. Yet
ial' products, as well as presuppositions con- many of these approaches are grounded in
cerning the neutrality and disinterestedness of earlier theoretical work. For this reason, a
scholarship, the idea of literary canons, the number of important precursors appear in this
transparency of language, and even the notion volume - Virginia Woolf, Sigmund Freud,
of clarity itself as a desirable or necessary fea- Wilhelm Dilthey, Friedrich Nietzsche, among
ture of argument. Issues discussed reappear others - and a number of schools, such as the
from a variety of points of view, some that Neo-Aristotelians, the Russian formalists, the
overlap, others that contradict each other; all Prague School. While the original list of en-
in combination suggest the contestatory nature tries for this volume was considerably shorter,
of the current critical and theoretical scene. expansion and revision have occurred after
extensive correspondence with scholars from
Selection of entries around the world. Unfortunately, some entries
had to be abandoned either when it proved
The present-day field of literary theory and impossible to find a contributor who could
criticism is as vast as it is varied. Though it is prepare an entry within the time constraints of
Introduction
the project, or, in much rarer cases, when the students may encounter these terms or their
entry did not meet the standards of the vol- centrality to an understanding of a particular
ume. theory or approach. Throughout the volume,
the contributors have attempted to make the
Evaluation language as straightforward as possible, recog-
nizing that here literary scholars are speaking
Each of the entries has undergone a rigorous to each other and thus are still heavily de-
evaluation procedure. In some cases, this has pendent upon their own dialect. Thus, the im-
meant that as many as nine readers com- plied reader to whom this book is directed is
mented on a single article. Revisions following not the general reader, but the advanced stu-
these numerous reports were often extensive. dent of literature, the reader already engaged
The contributor alone, however, is responsible in literary criticism, and often either on the
for the final version of the entry. way to or already in the profession. In some
cases, where the very nature of the material
Organization deliberately confounds logic, and where the
theorists themselves refuse linearity of argu-
Constructed as both dictionary and analytic ment and espouse what used to be called a
compendium, this book includes three sections more poetic manner of writing, the density
designed to serve as either building blocks or and flavour of the work have been retained.
as separate points of entry. Each section is al- While some uniformity of style has been
phabetically arranged. imposed on the entries, the individuality of
Part i of this volume, 'Approaches' - 48 the scholars has not, I hope, been entirely
evaluative essays - examines the great variety suppressed.
of schools and approaches to literary studies,
providing a sense of their historical, social and Transliteration
cultural contexts, an overview of the basic is-
sues and of their major practitioners. Some of The transliteration of Slavic languages follows
these essays examine large, systemic theories the Library of Congress system, except where
shared by scholars working in different parts bibliographical information provides alterna-
of the world. Others are affiliated with parti- tive spellings, or when a more commonly used
cular schools (and hence with specific geogra- spelling would be more readily identified by
phical locations) which have developed a the reader.
common point of view. Still others merely
share some general assumptions but employ a Directions for use
plethora of different methodologies. This sec-
tion concludes with a bibliographical essay on 1 Articles are arranged alphabetically within
the connections between theory and pedagogy. each of the three sections.
In particular, it examines the nature of the ev- 2 Asterisks refer the reader to another article
olution of English studies as a case study of in the volume.
the development of literary theory. 3 Bibliographies at the end of each entry sug-
Part 2, 'Scholars,' focuses on those who gest material for further study.
have helped transform the study of literature.
The list includes not only literary theorists and Acknowledgments
critics but also historians, philosophers, lingu-
ists, social scientists, theologians, polemicists, This volume is unusual in having received all
authors. Not always neatly pigeon-holed into of its support from the University of Ottawa.
any particular school or approach, the work of The Research Committee of the School of
these theorists and critics is explored and as- Graduate Studies and Res'earch provided the
sessed. initial funding for the project in late 1986.
Part 3, 'Terms,' deals with the vocabulary of Subsequently, the Committee's additional
literary theory. A selected list, it encompasses grants were augmented by the generosity of
what Oswald Ducrot and Tzvetan Todorov three consecutive deans: Dr. Marcel Hamelin
have called both methodological and descrip- (now Rector of the University), Dr. Nigel
tive concepts. These have been chosen on the Dennis, and Dr. Jean-Louis Major, who
basis of difficulty, the frequency with which
viii
Introduction
chaired the Research Committee of the Faculty Manganiello (Ottawa), Reed Merrill (Washing-
of Arts. ton), Heather Murray (Toronto), Bernhard Rad-
Such assistance would not be possible with- loff (Ottawa), David Raynor (Ottawa), Ronald
out the unflagging enthusiasm and encourage- de Souza (Toronto), and John Thurston (Ot-
ment of Dr. Frank Tierney, then Chair of the tawa).
Department of English, who first listened to The English Department's Secretariat - espe-
the idea many years ago, and then convinced cially Mrs. Marie Tremblay-Chenier, Mrs. Julie
the appropriate committees of the necessity of Sevigny-Roy and Mrs. Paula Greenwood -
their financial support. With similar zeal, Dr. passed on the great many faxes, telephone
David Staines, his successor, helped see the messages and photocopying orders with
project to its completion and, like Dr. Tierney, equanimity and good humour.
supplied the project with much-needed gradu- Roy Gibbons, then of Research Services, set
ate assistants, and with larger office space for up the computer program for the project. Ad-
the growing number of files. ditional programing and a great deal of techni-
A number of colleagues provided very help- cal troubleshooting were graciously handled
ful suggestions and criticisms. In the first few by Professor George White of the Computer
years of the project Dr. Peter McCormick was Science Department. Mr. Roland Serrat, Com-
particularly invaluable in areas where the liter- puting and Communications Services, authori-
ary crossed with the philosophical. Also, much tatively directed the preparation of the
profit was derived from conversations with machine-readable copy for the University of
Professors Ina Ferris, David L. Jeffrey, Sheldon Toronto Press.
P. Zitner, Linda Hutcheon, and, especially, Finally, an enormous amount of credit must
Camille R. La Bossiere. be given to our University of Ottawa English
Instrumental to the success of this book has Department graduate students, especially
been the work of the members of the Advisory Anne-Louise Gibbons, who acted as my re-
Board: Linda Hutcheon (Toronto), Louis Kelly search assistant for over three years, inputting
(Ottawa), Patrick Imbert (Ottawa), Camille R. material and making helpful suggestions of her
La Bossiere (Ottawa), and Sheldon P. Zitner own. Marilyn Geary took upon herself the task
(Toronto), who read all of the material and of making our relatively orderly filing system
made valuable comments and suggestions. truly so. Rhonda Waukhonen, Steven de Paul,
They have also helped encourage this harm- Debbie James, and Chris Maguire were all at
less drudge when my resolution became slug- one time or another involved in the tedious
gish, and my patience dull. business of photocopying, checking and dis-
The difficult and very important task of patching materials. Sandra Schaeken and
reading and evaluating the entries fell to Cheryl Ringor (from Law) acted as inputters in
Naomi Black (York), William Bonney (Missis- the last months of the project. But most thanks
sippi), Donald J. Childs (Ottawa), J. Douglas are due to the diligence, astonishing cheerful-
Clayton (Ottawa), Andrew Donskov (Ottawa), ness, patience, and professionalism of Miche-
David Dooley (Toronto), Ina Ferris (Ottawa), line White, the assistant who conquered the
Len Findlay (Saskatchewan), Terry Goldie computer and in the last year of the project
(York), Rosmarin Heidenreich (St. Boniface), brought the whole volume together. The task
John S. Hill (Ottawa), Nina Kolesnikoff (Mc- literally could not have been done without
Master), Peter McCormick (Ottawa), Dominic her.
ix