A History of Literary Criticism

Hi everyone, and welcome to the seventeenth episode of A History of Literary Criticism, a podcast about the history of literary criticism. Today’s episode concerns Wen-Hsin Tiao lung, a book by Liu Xie whose title can be translated as The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons. Nothing funny going on with the structure today—we’ll start with the social and literary context, then on to a pretty broad summary of what is an actual book-length text, and then a discussion in the context of Abrams’ triangle.

Welcome to the sixteenth episode of A History of Literary Criticism, a podcast about the history of literary criticism. Today’s episode Is on Lu Chi’s The Poetic Exposition on LIterature. We’ll look at the social and cultural context first, then discuss the work in some detail, including its form, and then summarise Lu’s work, which is divided into two parts. Finally, we’ll consider the work in relation to the points of Abrams’ triangle.

Welcome to the fifteenth episode of A History of Literary Criticism, a podcast about the history of literary criticism. Today’s episode concerns Ts’ao P’i’s A DIscourse on Literature. A fairly standard structure today: social and cultural context and then the summary of P’i’s work is divided according to the points of Abrams’ triangle: first, Ts’ao P’i’s thoughts on the artist, then the text, then the world. Significantly, no discussion of the reader, haha. In the conclusion, I’ll discuss how Ts’ao P’i’s positions align, or not, with the other theorists we’ve discussed so far.

No music, nothing fancy, just a quick message to say I'll be back soon!

Welcome to the fourteenth episode of A History of Literary Criticism. Today’s episode discusses The Maxims of Ptahhotep. The structure of today’s episode is a little different, because the text is quite short and this is the only text to be included, so far, from Ancient Egypt. So first I’ll discuss the social context and then the wisdom literature genre of which The Maxims of Ptahhotep is an example; then I’ll summarize the text and its relationship with Abrams’ triangle.

Welcome to the thirteenth episode of A History of Literary Criticism, a podcast about the history of literary criticism. Today’s episode is focused on a single text—The Great Preface. First we’ll discuss the social context and text itself and I’ll then move on to a discussion of the text itself. This discussion is divided into two main parts—firstly, what The Great Preface says about the nature and role of poetry, and then a discussion of the more ‘literary criticism’ aspects, including the categorisation of poetry and poetic genres.

The twelfth episode of A History of Literary Criticism, a podcast about the history of literary criticism. For today’s episode we’re going back to the fifth century BC to discuss Confucius’ work. We’ll start with Confucius’ biography, social and literary context, then focus on two main themes from Confucius’ Analects—the first is Confucius’ own literary criticism, that is, parts of Analects when he directly analyses poetry; the second is his theory of language as outlined in Analects. I’ll then situate Confucius’ thought within the context of Abrams’ triangle.

Welcome to the eleventh episode of A History of Literary Criticism, a podcast about the history of literary criticism. Today’s episode is a reflection on the texts we’ve covered so far as we move away from the Classical era. The episode is structured according to Abrams’ triangle, fist summarising approaches to considering the relationship between a text and the world, then the text and the reader, and then the text and the artist. I’ll finish today by discussing the overall structure and text selection of the podcast, which has preoccupied me a bit of late.

Hi everyone, and welcome to the tenth episode of A History of Literary Criticism, a podcast about the history of literary criticism. Today’s episode concerns Macrobius’ Commentary on the Dream of Scipio. I’ll discuss the author biography, social context and Cicero’s original text first, the subsequent discussion of Macrobius’ work is divided into three parts: philosophers’ use of fables, the significance of dreams, and a discussion of Macrobius’ broader methodology. I’ll then situate Macrobius’ work within the framework of Abrams’ triangle before discussing its broader impact and, yes, relationship to the work of Sigmund Freud.

Welcome to the ninth episode of A History of Literary Criticism. Today’s episode concerns two sections from Augustine of Hippo’s works On Christian Doctrine and The Trinity. I’ll discuss a little of the author biography first, then the main part of the episode is divided into four parts: Augustine’s theory of interpretation, the relationship between intention and language outlined in the texts, the importance of knowledge to Augustine’s theorisations, and the role of communication. Then, to Abrams’ triangle! And the implications of Augustine’s work for Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of language. Next week’s episode will be dedicated to Macrobius’ Commentary on the Dream of Scipio.