The British Critical Tradition: A Re-evaluation

268 Pages·1993·27.791 MB·English

by  Gary Day (eds.)

INSIGHTS
General Editor: Clive Bloom, Principal Lecturer in English, Middlesex
Polytechnic
Editorial Board: Clive Bloom, Brian Docherty, Gary Day, Lesley Bloom and
Hazel Day
Insights brings to academics, students and general readers the very best
contemporary criticism on neglected literary and cultural areas. It consists
of anthologies, each containing original contributions by advanced scholars
and experts. Each contribution concentrates on a study of a particular work,
author or genre in its artistic, historical and cultural context.
Published titles
Clive Bloom (editor)
JACOBEAN POETRY AND PROSE: Rhetoric, Representation and the
Popular Imagination
TWENTIETH-CENTURY SUSPENSE: The Thriller Comes of Age
SPY THRILLERS: From Buchan to le Carre
Clive Bloom, Brian Docherty, Jane Gibb and Keith Shand (editors)
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SUSPENSE: From Poe to Conan Doyle
Dennis Butts (editor)
STORIES AND SOCIETY: Children's Literature in a Social Context
Gary Day (editor)
READINGS IN POPULAR CULTURE: Trivial Pursuits?
THE BRITISH CRITICAL TRADITION: A Re-Evaluation
Gary Day and Clive Bloom (editors)
PERSPECTIVES ON PORNOGRAPHY: Sexuality in Film and Literature
Brian Docherty (editor)
AMERICAN CRIME FICTION: Studies in the Genre
AMERICAN HORROR FICTION: From Brockden Brown to Stephen King
Rhys Garnett and R. J. Ellis (editors)
SCIENCE FICTION ROOTS AND BRANCHES: Contemporary Critical
Approaches
Robert Giddings (editor)
LITERATURE AND IMPERIALISM
list continued on next page
list continued from previous page
Robert Giddings, Keith Selby and Chris Wensley
SCREENING THE NOVEL: The Theory and Practice of Literary
Dramatization
Dorothy Goldman (editor)
WOMEN AND WORLD WAR 1: The Written Response
Graham Holderness (editor)
THE POLffiCS OF THEATRE AND DRAMA
Paul Hyland and Neil Sammells (editors)
IRISH WRITING: Exile and Subversion
Maxim Jakubowski and Edward James (editors)
THE PROFESSION OF SCIENCE FICTION
Mark Lilly (editor)
LESBIAN AND GAY WRITING: An Anthology of Critical Essays
Christopher Mulvey and John Simons (editors)
NEW YORK: City as Text
Adrian Page (editor)
THE DEATH OF THE PLAYWRIGHT? Modern British Drama and
Literary Theory
Frank Pearce and Michael Woodiwiss (editors)
GLOBAL CRIME CONNECTIONS: DYNAMICS AND CONTROL
John Simons (editor)
FROM MEDIEVAL TO MEDIEVALISM
Jeffrey Walsh and James Aulich (editors)
VIETNAM IMAGES: War and Representation
Gina Wisker (editor)
BLACK WOMEN'S WRITING
The British Critical
Tradition
A Re-evaluation
Edited by
GARY DAY
M
MACMILLAN
©Editorial Board, Lumiere (Co-operative) Press Ltd 1993
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written pennission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London WIP9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First published 1993 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-53276-8 ISBN 978-1-349-22424-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22424-1
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Series Standing Order
If you would like to receive future titles in this series as they are published, you
can make use of our standing order facility. To place a standing order please
contact your bookseller or, in case ofd ifficulty, write to us at the address below
with your name and address and the name of the series. Please state with which
title you wish to begin your standing order. (If you live outside the United
Kingdom we may not have the rights for your area, in which case we will
forward your order to the publisher concerned.)
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS, England
For Hazel, Tony and Sharon
because the past matters as well as the future
Contents
Preface ix
Notes on the Contributors
X
1 Introduction: Criticism in Crisis 1
Gary Day
2 Carlyle's Metaphorical Dynamic of History: or How
to Trace a Grand Narrative in the French Revolution 8
Noel Parker
3 Matthew Arnold: The Discourse of Criticism 29
Graham Holderness
4 Samuel Butler: The First Post-Structuralist? 38
Ross Stewart
5 Oscar Wilde and Reader-Response Criticism 49
Bart Moore-Gilbert
6 Is there a Method in his Theory? A. C. Bradley and
Contemporary Criticism 67
Adrian Page
7 E. M. Forster: The Isolation of the Reader 80
Andrew Smith
8 The Moth and the Moth-Hunter: The Literary
Criticism of Virginia Woolf 92
Laura Kranzler
9 D. H. Lawrence: Cliques and Consciousness 108
Jim Reilly
10 I. A. Richards and the Problem of Method 122
Barry Cullen
vii
viii Contents
11 George Orwell: The Practical Critic 140
Anthony Crabbe
12 Reason, Rhetoric, Theory: Empson and de Man 153
Christopher Norris
13 About Being and Necessity: The Work of Christopher
Caudwell 170
Michael Hayes
14 W. H. Auden as Critic 181
Helena Blakemore
15 'I thought I had provided something better' -
F. R. Leavis, Literary Criticism and Anti-Philosophy 188
Barry Cullen
16 Raymond Williams and Post-Modernism 213
Tony Pinkney
17 Frank Kermode: History and Synchronicity 230
Barbara Helm
18 Vanishing Point: On the Edge of Critical Breakdown 238
Clive Bloom
Index 244
Preface
This collection offers a re-interpretation of the history of British
criticism by exploring the work of neglected as well as celebrated
critics. It contextualises the current crisis and shows how traditional
criticism anticipates and to some extent parallels the concerns of
post-modern critical theory. The issue of value is also addressed as is
the question of the future direction of criticism, making this volume
an important contribution to contemporary critical debate.
I should like to thank Clive and Lesley Bloom and Brian Docherty
for all their help and encouragement. I should also like to thank Janet
Dudley for her work on the index compilation. Thanks are also due
to Frances Arnold for her patience and support, and special thanks
go to Deborah Griffiths.
ix
Notes on the Contributors
Helena Blakemore is currently researching contemporary fiction at
Middlesex Polytechnic. She has contributed articles to Readings in
Popular Culture and Twentieth-Century Suspense, both in the Insights
series.
Clive Bloom has edited several books for the Insights series. His
latest is Spy Thrillers: From Buchan to le Carre. He is currently a
principal lecturer in English at Middlesex Polytechnic.
Anthony Crabbe lectures in history of art and design at Trent Poly
technic. He has contributed articles to Readings in Popular Culture
and Perspectives on Pornography, both in the Insights series.
Barry Cullen is a senior lecturer in English at Middlesex Polytech
nic. He is currently writing a book on F. R. Leavis.
Gary Day has edited Readings in Popular Culture and co-edited Per
spectives on Pornography with Clive Bloom, both in the Insights series.
He is one of the editors for the forthcoming Longman's series Litera
ture and Culture.
Michael Hayes teaches at Lancashire Polytechnic. He has published
widely on literary theory and popular fiction.
Barbara Helm is doing research at Lancashire Polytechnic. Some of
her short stories have been broadcast by the BBC.
Graham Holderness is Head of Drama at Roehampton Institute,
London. He has published extensively in Renaissance and modern
literature and drama. His most recent publications are Shakespeare
out of Court and The Politics of Theatre and Drama (editor) in the
Insights Series. He is also the author of Shakespeare Recycled: The
Making of Historical Drama.
Laura Kranzler teaches feminist theory at Oxford. She has just com
pleted her thesis on violence in the Gothic novel.
X