Northrop Frye and the Problem of Spiritual Authority

PMLA ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 87 (5) ◽  
pp. 964-975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F. Altieri
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Contemporary Problem ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Northrop Frye

Northrop Frye's recent criticism confronts the contemporary problem raised most powerfully by the Vietnam War—can we find a telos or definition of man on which we can ground our moral reactions and our visions of human development. Frye establishes this telos by an analysis of origins. Contained in a civilization's statements of “concern,” in its imaginative treatments of its own condition, one can find an underlying structure of desire which defines the ends of man. This structure and the recurrent images it produces then can serve as the middle terms people use to justify and value their actions. Frye shares his treatment of mediation with contemporary Hegelians like Sartre, Lukács, and Ricoeur, but grounds his absolute in tradition rather than in ideal absolutes or posited evolutionary patterns. Frye's idea of mediation also provides an ethical model for literary criticism: the critic tries to combine literature as product and as cultural possession by interpreting his materials as projections of imaginative desire. Furthermore, we can use Frye to criticize the relativist denial of origins in structuralist critics like Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida.

Literature in Our Time, or, Loving Literature to Bits

CounterText ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Callus
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Anthony Trollope ◽  
Don Quixote ◽  
Time Machine ◽  
Paul Auster ◽  
Anne Michaels

In this essay Ivan Callus provides some reflections on literature in the present. He considers the tenability of the post-literary label and looks at works that might be posited as having some degree of countertextual affinity. The essay, while not setting itself up as a creative piece, deliberately structures itself unconventionally. It frames its argument within twenty-one sections that are self-contained but that also echo each other in their attempt to develop an overarching argument which draws out some of the challenges that lie before the countertextual and the post-literary. Punctuating the essay and contributing to its unconventional take on the practice of literary criticism is a series of exercises for the reader to complete, if so wished; the essay makes no attempt, however, to suggest that a countertextual criticism ought to make a routine of such devices. The separate sections contain reflections on a number of texts and writers, among them, and in order of appearance, Hamlet, Anthony Trollope, Jacques Derrida, The Time Machine, Don Quixote, Mark Z. Danielewski, Mark B. N. Hansen, Gunter Kress, Scott's Reliquiae Trotcosienses, W. B. Yeats, Kate Tempest, David Jones, Anne Michaels, Bernice Eisenstein, Paul Auster, J. M. Coetzee, Billy Collins, Deidre Shauna Lynch, Tim Parks, Tom McCarthy – and Hamlet again. The essay's length fulfils a performative function but also facilitates as extensive a catalogue of aspects of the countertextual in literature and elsewhere as is feasible or as might be dared at this stage.

A Comparative Exploration of the Spiritual Authority of the Awliyā’ in the Shi‘i and Sufi Traditions

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-74
Author(s):  
Rebecca Masterton
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Critical Comparison ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
Central Tenet ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Islamic Belief

This paper aims to engage in a critical comparison of the spiritual authority of the awliyā’ in the Shi‘i and Sufi traditions in order to examine an area of Islamic belief that remains unclearly defined. Similarities between Shi‘i and Sufi doctrine have long been noted, but little research has been conducted on how and why they developed. Taking a central tenet of both, walāyah, the paper discusses several of its key aspects as they appear recorded in Shi‘i ḥadīth collections and as they appear later in one of the earliest Sunni Sufi treatises. By extention, it seeks to explore the identity of the awliyā’ and their role in relation to the Twelve Imams. It also traces the reabsorption into Shi‘i culture of the Sufi definition of walāyah via two examples: the works of one branch of the Dhahabi order and those of Allamah Tabataba’i, a popular twentieth-century Iranian mystic and scholar.

Double Thoughts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Dean
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Paul De Man ◽  
Literature And Philosophy ◽  
De Man ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

Coetzee’s interest in destabilizing the boundaries of literature and philosophy is most evident in later fictions such as Elizabeth Costello. But as Andrew Dean argues in this chapter, this interest in moving across boundaries in fact originates much earlier, in Coetzee’s quarrel with the institutions and procedures of literary criticism. Coetzee used the occasion of his inaugural professorial lecture at the University of Cape Town (Truth and Autobiography) to criticize the assumption that literary criticism can reveal truths about literature to which literary texts are themselves blind. Influenced in part by such figures as Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man, Coetzee posed a series of challenging questions about the desires at stake in the enterprise of literary criticism. Developing these thoughts, Dean explores the way in which Coetzee’s earlier fiction, including such texts as Foe (1986), is energized by its quarrelsome relationship with literary criticism and theory, especially postcolonial theory.

scholarly journals Reframing ‘integration’: acknowledging and addressing five core critiques

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Spencer ◽  
Katharine Charsley
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Heuristic Model ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Methodological Nationalism ◽  
Narrow Focus ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractEmpirical and theoretical insights from the rich body of research on ‘integration’ in migration studies have led to increasing recognition of its complexity. Among European scholars, however, there remains no consensus on how integration should be defined nor what the processes entail. Integration has, moreover, been the subject of powerful academic critiques, some decrying any further use of the concept. In this paper we argue that it is both necessary and possible to address each of the five core critiques on which recent criticism has focused: normativity; negative objectification of migrants as ‘other’; outdated imaginary of society; methodological nationalism; and a narrow focus on migrants in the factors shaping integration processes. We provide a definition of integration, and a revised heuristic model of integration processes and the ‘effectors’ that have been shown to shape them, as a contribution to a constructive debate on the ways in which these challenges for empirical research can be overcome.

scholarly journals Ki vagyok én? - Szárnyas fejvadász 2049

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 307-312
Author(s):  
Pál Gerdesits
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Ferdinand De Saussure ◽  
Blade Runner ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Proper Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Philosophical Questions

My essay focuses on the ontological crisis articulated in the film Blade Runner 2049, the sequel for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. This film is based on the conflict between humans and androids called replicants who would like to live equally to humans. In my opinion the root of their opposition lies on the inability to give a proper definition of what we normally call ‘human’. In this writing I present and analyse the nature of this conflict and also the philosophical questions (representation, freedom, self-identity etc.) arising from it based on the ideas of philosophers like Michel Foucault. Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida and Ferdinand de Saussure.

ON THE FORMATION OF GERMAN REALISM

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (77) ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
A.S. Bakalov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Realism ◽  
Regional Literature ◽  
Empirical Level ◽  
New Business ◽  
Main Thing ◽  
The Times ◽  
Life Phenomena ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

The relevance of research. In German literary criticism, there is no unambiguous definition of the phenomenon of literary realism, however, at the empirical level, it is understood as a literary system based on a mimetic-oriented depiction of reality, often critically comprehended and subjectively colored due to the norms and ideas that are taking shape in society. Research methodology. Complex and systematic methods of literature analysis are applied. In this article, the author comes to the conclusion that the realism of the turn of the XIX - early XX centuries. retains its main principles of artistic comprehension of the world, and at the same time the signs that do not allow talking about its dissolution in the eclectic picture of the emerging modernity. The main thing remains the disclosure of "the essence of life phenomena through their individualized generalization (typification)", analysis and specific historical logic of presentation Realism at the turn of the 19th - early 20th centuries. closely associated with such phenomena as regional literature, "new business-like", historical novel. On its basis, workers' and proletarian-revolutionary literature developed in many ways. In German literature of the twentieth century. realistic tendencies intensified in the times following the historical and political catastrophes, primarily after the two world wars lost by Germany. Realism played a significant role in the literature of the Weimar Republic (the works of E.M. Remarque, L. Feuchtwanger, L. Frank and others), while in contact with modernist and avant-garde trends (for example, with "new business-like"). Realism turned out to be no less significant after 1945, having equally influenced the formation of the literatures of West and East Germany (writers of the "group of 47", Erwin Strittmatter, "socialist realism", etc.). German realism, which emerged in the middle of the 19th century, was able to demonstrate its flexibility and ability to enter into alliances with other natural artistic directions, without losing its main specificity - the desire for materiality, the authenticity of personal and collective experience, as well as symbolizing the "obvious" with the goal of approaching the "true".

A Critical Theory of Medical Discourse: How Patients and Health Professionals Deal with Social Problems

1989 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Waitzkin ◽  
Theron Britt
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Medical Discourse ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Structural Relationships ◽  
Desirable Behavior

Criticism of social context does not generally appear in medical encounters. When contextual issues arise in medical discourse, messages of ideology and social control may become apparent, usually without the conscious awareness of the participants. By easing the physical or psychological impact of contextual difficulties, or by encouraging patients' conformity to mainstream expectations of desirable behavior, encounters with doctors can help win patients' consent to troubling social conditions. Seen in this light, doctor-patient encounters become micropolitical situations that do not typically encourage explicit statements or actions by health professionals to change contextual sources of their patients' difficulties. A critical theory influenced by structuralism suggests that the surface meanings of signs in medical discourse prove less important than their structural relationships. In addition, a theoretical approach adopting elements of post-structuralism and Marxist literary criticism emphasizes the marginal, absent, or excluded elements of medical discourse. Contextual features that shape a text include social class, sex, age, and race. Through the underlying structure of medical discourse, contextual problems are expressed, marginalized, and managed.

Language, Metaphor, and Chalcedon: A Case of Theological Double Vision

1995 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-255
Author(s):  
Stephen W. Need
Keyword(s):  
William Blake ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Double Vision ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Theological Language ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Northrop Frye

The question of how human language functions in relation to God constitutes one of the most difficult problems in Christian theology. I contend that Christian notions of language about God should be constructed in light of christology, since both are concerned with the relationship between the human and the divine. Northrop Frye, drawing on the poetry and thought of William Blake, speaks of the importance of “the double vision of a spiritual and a physical world simultaneously present” in understanding how religious language works. This fundamental quality of double vision or tension characterizes the relationship between the human and the divine both in language about God and in christology. In this article I shall examine several aspects of the relationship between the human and the divine: first, the basic problem of theological language as discussed by George Lindbeck; second, the notion of theological language as metaphorical, as discussed by Sallie McFague; and third, christology as found in the Chalcedonian definition of Christian faith. I shall conclude that it is appropriate to construct notions of language about God in light of Chalcedonian christology.

scholarly journals PERJUANGAN PEREMPUAN DALAM KUMPULAN CERPEN NADIRA KARYA LEILA S. CHUDORI: KAJIAN FEMINISME

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Rahma Aulia Syainit ◽  
Yenni Hayati ◽  
Muhammad Ismail Nasution
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Analysis Approach ◽  
Socialist Feminism ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Definition Of

The object of this study was a collection of short stories Nadira written by Leila S. Chudori. This research aims to describe (1) women's struggle, and (2) ideas of feminism in a collection of short stories Nadira by Leila S. Chudori. Theoritical studies used in this research are: (1) the definition of short stories and (2) fictional structure, consists of (a) intrinsic element, and (b) extrinsic elements, (3) fictional analysis approach, and (4) the essence of feminism. The study used feminist literary criticism. Based on the story of this collection of short stories, another study used theory of socialist feminism. Feminism refers to a thought or ideology that want justice and gender equality. Because of these ideals, then feminism is regarded as an ideology of women's liberation. While socialist feminism states  the cause of oppression in women is capitalism and patriarchy. Feminism literary criticism means “reading as woman”. This feminism literary criticism analysis was conducted using feminism approach. This study will examine the women's struggles in the social, economic, educational, and political  contained in this collection of short stories.Keywords: women, feminism, feminist- socialist, feminism ideas 

scholarly journals Language of Poetry and Poetic Discourse (on the Problem of the Relationship of Concepts)

2021 ◽  
Vol 163 (4–5) ◽  
pp. 119-128
Author(s):  
Siqi Wang ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Poetic Discourse ◽  
Ethical Discourse ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Level Of Understanding ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Linguistics

The article examines the essential and logical-hierarchical relationships of such concepts as poetic discourse, poetic language, and the language of poetry. The relevance of the research is determined by fact that the understanding and interpretation of poetic discourse within the framework of the scientific theory is in a state of development, the methodology of literary criticism and linguistics is evolving, and many concepts are still confused. Opinions expressed by the researchers who have studied the essence of poetic language and language of poetry, as well as support the concept of poetic discourse, are analyzed. The main results of the study include the definition of concepts of ethical discourse, poetic language, and the language of poetry in close logical and epistemological relationship with each other. Based on the obtained results, the following conclusions are made. Firstly, the phenomenal essence of poetic language is described. Secondly, the mechanism of poetic discourse development is viewed as a result of two refractions (author’s and reader’s) of the language of poetry. At the same time, the language of poetry is presented as a locus (modus) of a worldview or a linguistic worldview. Thirdly, poetic discourse is considered as part of artistic discourse, which is not only emotional and aesthetic, but also cognitive and aesthetic content. The above-given conclusions are important for the theory of linguistics and literary criticism, because they contain the rationale for the statement that poetic discourse is a level of understanding and interpretation of the language of poetry as a mode of the linguistic reality. At the same time, poetic language is a skillfully applied technological side of a special kind of creative, heuristic activity.

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