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| Titre : | Literature and Its Theorists: A Personal View of Twentieth-Century Criticism |
| Auteurs : | Tzvetan Todorov |
| Type de document : | document électronique |
| Editeur : | [S.l.] : Cornell University Press, 1989 |
| ISBN/ISSN/EAN : | 978-0-8014-9553-3 |
| Index. décimale : | 801.95 (Critique litt├®raire (th├®orie, technique, histoire). Classer ├á 809 les ouvrages de critique litt├®raire) |
| Résumé : |
Part history, part confession, part manifesto, Literature and Its Theorists is Tzvetan Todorov's bold statement of what literature is and what criticism should be, and is the final volume in Todorov's trilogy devoted to the theory and tradition of literary criticism, which also includes Theories of the Symbol, and Symbolism and Interpretation. This book represents the contemporary ideological debate in criticism as an opposition between classical dogmatism and modern relativism, or nihilism. Todorov seeks to break out of this paralyzing dichotomy and to achieve a morally committed criticism that offers the possibility of transcending extreme relativism without retreating into dogmatism, of opposing nihilism without ceasing to be an atheist. Todorov undertakes analytical portraits of major writers in four critical traditions: the Russian Formalists and Mikhail Bakhtin; the Germans Alfred D├Âblin and Bertolt Brecht; Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Blanchot, Roland Barthes, and Paul B├®nichou from France; and the Anglo-American critics Northrop Frye and Ian Watt. Asserting that the modern aesthetic is dominated by the Romantic ideology which divorces textual meaning from any reference to truth, Todorov considers how each author's work either remains within or challenges and moves beyond the Romantic framework. Finally, Todorov promotes the idea of criticism as a dialogue in which both author's and critic's voices are allowed to be heard as equals in the pursuit of truth. Through his personal, self-reflexive method which includes "conversations" with Watt and B├®nichou, Todorov present* Literature and Its Theorists* as an example of "dialogic" criticism, and his own critical career as an object of such criticism. He thus offers* Literature and Its Theorists* as a *bildungsroman*, an account of his own attempts to think beyond Romanticism through a series of authors with whom he identifies in turn, a yet-to-be concluded novel of his apprenticeship in criticism. This English-language edition concludes with an appendix written in response to reactions to the French edition, two provocative essays that clarify Todorov's perception of traditional literary history, and his assessment of contemporary criticism. ### Review "In selecting representative twentieth-century thinkers, Todorov's intention is both to illuminate significant conceptual issues and to suggest intellectual points of contact among well-known figures. . . . In addition to dealing with varying interpretations of criticism's functions and tasks, this work considers means by which several writers of fiction arrived at their own positions on major literary controversies. . . . Literature and Its Theorists work gives ample expression to Todorov's literary and moral convictions."ÔÇöMagill's Literary Annual "This is an enormously intriguing study, a work of major importance. Todorov has not tried to write a systematic history of twentieth-century criticism here. Instead, he has done something I find more satisfying. He has identified individual critics and critical persuasions that matter to him. Anyone interested in twentieth-century literary criticism and theory will want this book."ÔÇöMelvin J. Friedman, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee ### Language Notes Text: English, French (translation) |
