爱伦坡小说理论

爱伦坡小说理论 爱伦坡小说理论:In his definition of the short story, he emphasized brevity and unity of impression. The latter is the all-important element, and by unity Poe meant totality or oneness of impression. 1: The short story must be of such length as to be read at one sitting(brevity), so as to ensure the totality of impression. Poe stresses brevity because he thought that unity of impression would be blurred and lost in the mass of details inevitable in a long story or novel. 2:The very first sentence ought to help to bring out the “single effect” of the story. He insisted that the writer must first determine the effect that he wished to produce and then deliberately choose incidents to assist in the creation of such an effect. 3: A tale should reveal some logical truth with “the fullest satisfaction,” and should end with the last sentence, leaving a sense of finality with the reader. 4:In theme he anticipates twentieth-century literature in his treatment of the disintegration of the self in a world of T.S.Eliot’s nothingness and Hemingway’s nada. He places the subconscious condition of the mind under investigation and probes beneath the surface of normal exitence. New Criticism: a school of poetry and criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century, emphasizing close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism,E.T.Eliot,I.A. Richards Feature:1it focuses on the analysis of the text rather paying attention to external elements, which has tended to divorce criticism from social and moral concerns. 2 it explores the artistic struture of the work rather than its author’s frame of mind or its readers’ responses. 3 it see a literary work as an organic entity , the unity of content and form, and places emphasis on the close reading of the text. 4 The New Critical poem kept the basic Modernist values and abandoned other High Modernist features. Influence: one of the many phases in the history of American literary criticism,which influence the careers of many poets Local Colorism: Local Colorism or Regionalism as a trend first made its presence felt in the late 1860s and early seventies in America. It may be defined as the careful attegogoms in speech, dress or behavior peculiar to a geographical locality. The ultimate aim of the local colorists is to create the illusion of an indigenous little world with qualities that tell it apart from the world outside. The social and intellectual climate of the country provided a stimulating milieu for the growth of local color fiction in America. Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They tended to idealize and glorify, but they never forgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life. They formed an important part of the realistic movement. Although it lost its momentum toward the end of the 19th century, the local spirit continued to inspire and fertilize the imagination of author. Lost Generation: This term describes the people of the postwar years and the Americans who remained in Paris as a colony of “ expatriates” or exiles. It describes the writers like Hemingway who lived in semi poverty. It describes the Americans who returned to their native land with an intense awareness of living in an unfamiliar changing world. The young English and American expatriates, men and women, were caught in the war and cut off from the old values and yet unable to come to terms with the new era when civilization had gone mad. They wandered pointlessly and restlessly, enjoying things like fishing, swimming, bullfight and beauties of nature, but they were aware all the while that the world is crazy and meaningless and futile. Their whole life is undercut and defeated. Psychological Realism: It is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities of characters’ thoughts and motivations, circumstances, and internal action , started by the end of 20 centry. Henry James is considered the founder of psychological realism. His novel The Ambassadors is considered to be a masterpiece of psychological realism.