Arnold Bennett

2021 ◽  
pp. 126-166
Author(s):  
Charlotte Jones
Keyword(s):  
British Literature ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
Reality Effect ◽  
Arnold Bennett ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Modern British Literature ◽  
Critical Writings

Virginia Woolf’s accusation that ‘Life escapes’ from the aesthetic horizons of Bennett’s fiction has long haunted his critical reception. Chapter 3 therefore turns to the function of description within realism, arguing that Bennett does not conceptually prioritize either the particulars, as Woolf argued, or the aggregated scene, as in Barthes’s ‘reality effect’, where the specificities of detail are secondary to its ideological function. The solid superficies for which Bennett has become infamous never constitute individual atoms of meaning, for he insists on both the particularity of a given scene and its transient coherence as a totality. This stereoptic effect mobilizes a searching scepticism as to reality’s appearances, which makes Bennett aim at what is at once both a more abstract and a more concrete notion of truth, one whose material manifestations carry with it the mark of its relation to a whole range of universal truths of which it is part. In this, Bennett acknowledges a debt to the ‘synthetic philosophy’ of Herbert Spencer. By examining more closely the influence of Spencer’s metaphysics on Bennett’s realist aesthetics, and focusing on Bennett’s novels together with his numerous critical writings, this chapter gives long-overdue attention to an often neglected figure in modern British literature.

Stuart Succession Literature

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
British Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Literature And Politics ◽  
Distinct Category ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
Distinguished Group ◽  
Modern British Literature

Moments of royal succession, which punctuated the Stuart era (1603–1714), occasioned outpourings of literature. Writers, including most of the major figures of the seventeenth century from Jonson, Daniel, and Donne to Marvell, Dryden, and Behn, seized upon these occasions to mark the transition of power; to reflect upon the political structures and values of their nation; and to present themselves as authors worthy of patronage and recognition. This volume of essays explores this important category of early modern writing. It contends that succession literature warrants attention as a distinct category: appreciated by contemporaries, acknowledged by a number of scholars, but never investigated in a coherent and methodical manner, it helped to shape political reputations and values across the period. Benefiting from the unique database of such writing generated by the AHRC-funded Stuart Successions Project, the volume brings together a distinguished group of authors to address a subject which is of wide and growing interest to students both of history and of literature. It illuminates the relation between literature and politics in this pivotal century of English political and cultural history. Interdisciplinary in scope, the volume will be indispensable to scholars of early modern British literature and history as well as undergraduates and postgraduates in both fields.

The ‘Naturalist’ Treatment of Film in The Specificity of the Aesthetic (Georg Lukács, 1963) and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1962; Caspar Wrede, 1970)

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Aitken
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Georg Lukacs ◽  
Realism And Naturalism ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Critical Writings ◽  
Georg Lukács ◽  
Made In

The distinction between progressive ‘narration’ and reactionary ‘description’, that is, between realism and naturalism, is one that Georg Lukács often made in his critical writings on literature, and is encapsulated in his 1936 essay ‘Narrate or Describe?’. This distinction, appearing in such an uncompromising essay, has also provided critics with reason to dismiss Lukács’ position on naturalism, and also on modernism, given that Lukács argued elsewhere that twentieth-century modernism was a regressive outcome of the alienating tendencies found within nineteenth-century naturalism. However, this chapter argues that the ‘Narrate or Describe?’ essay was related to the context of the 1930s, and that Lukács’ position on naturalism and modernism began to change from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. A key work here was Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962). Lukács then revised his understanding of naturalism, and this found expression in his The Specificity of the Aesthetic (the Aesthetic) (1963). This chapter explores the account of filmic naturalism in the Aesthetic, and then compare that with Lukács’ response to Solzhenitsyn’s work, before applying both to an analysis of the 1970 film One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Prodigals and Profligates; or, a Short History of Modern British Drama

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-38
Author(s):  
John Stokes
Keyword(s):  
British Literature ◽  
Short History ◽  
Prodigal Son ◽  
King's College ◽  
Inaugural Lecture ◽  
British Drama ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern British Literature

In 1996 John Stokes was appointed to the first endowed Chair in Modern British Literature at King's College, London, where English has been taught since the 1830s. In this version of his inaugural lecture, delivered on 6 November 1997, he traces the transformations undergone by the figure of the prodigal son in the drama of the last hundred years and argues for recognition of the part played by actors in determining the course of theatrical history.

scholarly journals RITO DE PASSAGEM DA VIDA: a recepção de Maria Lúcia Medeiros por alunos do Instituto Federal do Pará

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 225
Author(s):  
Wellingson Valente dos Reis ◽  
José Guilherme De Oliveira Castro ◽  
Lucilinda Ribeiro Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
Federal Institute ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Los Grupos ◽  
Reception Aesthetics

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar a recepção do conto “Quarto de Hora”, de Maria Lúcia Medeiros, pelos alunos do 1º Ano do Ensino Médio do Instituto Federal do Pará, para verificar os pontos de recepção crítica desses alunos, observando se eles conseguiriam relacionar os ritos de passagem presentes nos contos, com o que eles vivenciam; percebendo as habilidades intrínsecas, os conhecimentos de mundo, o efeito estético e as expectativas dos sujeitos/leitores. Para tanto, optou-se por um aporte teórico afinado com a teoria recepcional de Jauss (1994), Iser (1996; 1999), Costa Lima (2011) e Zilberman (1989), bem como a metodologia dos círculos de leitura de Cosson (2014) e dos Grupos Focais de Godim (2003).AbstractThe objective of this article is to analyze the reception of the  “Quarter Hour”, of Maria Lucía Medeiros, by the students of the 1st year of High School of the Federal Institute of Pará, to verify the points of critical reception of these students, observing if they could relate the rites of passage presents in the stories, with what they experience; perceiving the intrinsic abilities, the knowledge’s of world, the aesthetic effect and the expectations of the subjects/readers. Therefore, a theoretical approach based on the receptive theory of Jauss (1994), Iser (1996; 1999), Costa Lima (2011) and Zilberman (1989) and the methodology of the reading circles of Cosson (2014) and the Focus Groups of Godim (2003)  Keywords: Reception aesthetics. Maria Lúcia Medeiros. Rites of passage. Background education.ResumenEl presente artículo tiene como objetivo analizar la recepción del cuento “Quarto de Hora”, de María Lucía Medeiros, por los estudiantes del primer año de la enseñanza média del Instituto Federal do Pará, para verificar los puntos de recepción crítica de estos estudiantes, observando si ellos podrían relacionar los ritos de pasaje presente en las historias, con lo que ellos han experimentado en su vida; percibiendo las habilidades intrínsecas, los conocimientos del mundo, el efecto estético y las expectativas de los sujetos/lectores. Por lo tanto, se optó por un enfoque teórico afinado a la teoría recepcional de Jauss (1994), Iser (1996; 1999), Costa Lima (2011) y Zilberman (1989) y la metodología de los círculos de lectura de Cosson (2014) y de los Grupos Focales de Godim (2003).Palabras clave: Estética de la recepción. Maria Lucia Medeiros. Ritos de pasaje. Experiencia educacional.

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