Just Literature discussion

Yes! Love it!

Where to start? Ok, first of all, there's a huge difference between criticism and theory... Theory is the study of how to read literary texts, criticism is an analysis, interpretation and evaluation of one or more literary texts using or not using one or more literary theories.

Let us take one of my idols, for example, T.S. Eliot, apart from being a poet and playwright, he was also a critic and theorist. As a critic, I find myself often disagreeing with him, for example in his essay on Dante Alighieri, I think he totally misses the point: he cannot see Dante's philosophy nor can he really read the Commedia in depth. He also tries to give an ultimate evaluation of Dante's epic, which is impossible: it takes a life of dedication to get anywhere near understanding the poem appropriately... Although his theoretical work informs the essay, that is a critical study.

On the other hand, as a theorist, Eliot is seminal: Tradition and the Individual Talent: An Essay and The Metaphysical Poets remain the cornerstones of modern theory. The first sets the foundations to understand the role of tradition and of writers as catalysts, the second traces the whole of Western tradition back to the swinging between two natures, represented by the Metaphysical Poets and the Romantic Poets as diametrical opposites. As a theorist, he has given us ways of reading any text in the light of his approach to reading Literature, as a critic, even in his theoretical works, for example when in The Metaphysical Poets he sides against the Romantics, he makes a little mistake as a theorist: he lets his job as a critic intervene and influence his theoretical work.

new historicism. Briefs understandings and conceptions please needed

new historicism. Briefs understandings and conceptions please needed