Western Literary Tradition Definition Essays

In the Western tradition, the first known theorist to think about the functions of the literature is the Greek philosopher Plato, who raised fundamental and enduring questions about the role of literature and its justification in his famous book The Republic.Similarly, the literary works Candide by Voltaire and Emile by J. J. Rousseau have been highly influential in the outbreak of the French Revolution.Finding an exact definition of literature has confused and baffled many literary theorists throughout history.Although he is notorious for being severely critical against literature, he made a great contribution to the development of literary criticism because many thinkers have produced literary theories to refute Plato’s arguments.Howev...

Barthes gives the example of Tokyo, a city, unlike Western cities, that has its centre to one side: the Emperor’s residence is decentred.To show this, both Derrida and Barthes are giving the same example: the literary works where the centre is the author – source of all meaning, the origin from which the literary work derives.Taking into account the history (from the readers perspective), post-structuralism is notorious for challenging hierarchies implicit in identification of binary oppositions (for example saussurean binary oppositions) which generally characterise not only structuralism but Western metaphysics.The Western sign, always full, attached to a definite signified, is placed in antithesis with the flexibility of Eastern way t...

Rather, it is designed to give the teacher an introduction to less commonly used method and set of literary canons by which to critically read, observe, analyse and question any literary work of art.Nativistic Literary Values: i) Tradition: Nativism locates non-vedic and oral tradition as the most significant creative upsurge of the Indian mind not only for the merit of ideas and insights it can offer but for its place in the process of acquiring Indian sensibility.These literatures display a firmer hold on nativism; and all these literatures though not entirely free from the lures of literary modernism, present greater number of literary works with a splendid awareness of native tradition.They used (and still use) the western intellectu...

But the women's participation in literature has been limited and for a lot of time excluded completely.The French feminist critics were influenced by the Structuralism and the post-Structuralism specially the work of Derrida and Lacan.The cultural feminism is one of those aspects which celebrates the woman culture and claims for its analysis.The other division is a French stress upon the literary language by the female.It defends the traditionally ascribed traits to woman such as subjectivity, compassion, closeness to other and reliance on others.

Additionally, colonization by England and other Western countries meant that many more people traveled to the Orient and eventually shared their experiences in written form, giving rise to a large body of memoirs, diaries, geographies, histories, and manuals.Respected African literary critic Kofi Awoonor systematically collects and translates into English much of African oral culture and art forms, preserving native African culture.Critics who have studied Orientalism in Europe, especially in nineteenth-century literature, have pointed out that there is much that can be learned about the West’s image of itself through the way Western writers have depicted the Orient.Alan Richardson, Meyda Yeğenoğlu, and Joseph W. Lew, among others, have ...

All travelogue writings and western historiography between the middle ages and the twentieth century are good examples to illustrate this point.For them, literature is strongly affiliated with Western power and hegemony.Edward Said’s Orientalism shows: the collusion between the literary text and the process of Western political domination, and the creation of images of the?Most Postcolonial critics have stated that Western literature has created an “Other” as the opposite of the West and its civilization, and projected upon him all the negative attributes such as primitiveness, backwardness, cannibalism, ignorance, barbarism, laziness, paganism, etc.Their definition of “literature” is therefore based uniquely on form and language, which ...

Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography.Literary convention is on one side the particular tool or image; for example, "baptism" can be used as a literary a convention.Martin 33-55. .devices of structure and plot, techniques of character representation, and a vast reservoir of images and symbols are conventions that most Western literatures, at least, have in commonBut like the conventions of language, they have meaning only to those who have learned them (Keesey, 262).Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1969. .

After 1817, entirely new literary values were essay, and literary drama (this last incorporating both classical Sanskrit and Western models)—that gradually engulfed the customary Indian verse genres.As the decadent reign of the Qing failed to inspire the minds of people, the literary forms had remained unchanged; till the Opium War in 1840. .Egyptian literature has also experienced plenty of changes due to interaction with western cultures.Then they absorbed the impact of western thoughts as foreigners poured in China and established their colonies.China and India, as countries from the East, have a winding, rich, and spectacular literary tradition.

But it was not wholly accepted by these Europeans.They began to employ their foreign concepts in the critical evaluation of African traditional literature.But this view was met with a lot of controversial criticisms, as African Scholars began to argue the importance of African traditional literature in the literary world, stressing the fact that traditional literature is not only relevant, but should also be accorded a literary status in the literary world.More recent studies have indeed revealed that the old view that rural societies are not capable of producing elegant literature expressing the responses of men in an advanced culture to events around them is no longer tenable.They believed that Africans do not possess adequate tools fo...

AMERICAN MODERNIST POETRY: WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS AND THE OBJECTIVISTS .Pound and Whitman, Pound and imagism: “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste,” Pound’s definition of an image, Pound’s “translations” from the Chinese – Pound and Fenollosa, Pound and the haiku tradition, Pound as a critic of the Western civilization, political controversies surrounding Pound .Hemingway as a war correspondent, Hemingway’s “macho” philosophy of life – the importance of fishing, hunting and bullfighting, the “Hemingway hero”, the “Hemingway code,” Hemingway and the Lost Generation, Hemingway’s style, Hemingway and sentimentalism, Hemingway’s major works .GERTRUDE STEIN .William Carlos Williams’s idea of modern American poetry – Williams’s attitude towards Eliot...

Stein’s background, Stein and feminism , the importance of Stein for American letters, political controversies surrounding Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas – Stein as a chronicle of Paris life, Tender Buttons as an example of Stein’s experimental writing, Stein as an art collector .Twain – a romantic or a realist?, literary significance of Mark Twain, Twain’s life experiences as reflected in his works, Twain as a travel writer, Twain as a publisher – the American literary market in the late nineteenth C., Twain’s personal tragedies, literary fads exploited by Twain, Twain’s major woks .WILLIAM FAULKNER .The topics of the remaining two lectures: .AMERICAN MODERNIST POETRY: WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS AND THE OBJECTIVISTS ...

Thus, Frankenstein seems to be a stable mythic figure within the modern literary tradition.In this case the definition of myth set forth by Jaah Puhvel would be relevant: “In myth are expressed the thought patterns by which a group formulates self-cognition and self-realization, attains self-knowledge and self-confidence, explains its own source and being and that of its surroundings, and sometimes tries to chart its destinies.The style of “Moby-Dick” was almost revolutionary for its time with its imaginative, intricate, and varied descriptions, with going into details of the techniques of whale-hunting and related adventures and with the usage by the narrator of reflections connecting the story with the heritage of the Western history, ...

John Hartley notes that ‘the addition of just one film to the Western genre… changes that genre as a whole – even though the Western in question may display few of the recognized conventions, styles or subject matters traditionally associated with its genre’ (O’Sullivan et al.Some are performer-based (the Astaire-Rogers films) or budget-based (blockbusters), while others are based on artistic status (the art film), racial identity (Black cinema), locat[ion] (the Western) or sexual orientation (Queer cinema).Traditionally, genres (particularly literary genres) tended to be regarded 3 as fixed forms, but contemporary theory emphasizes that both their forms and functions are dynamic.Robert Allen comments wryly that ‘Tudor even hints that in...

Feminist criticism became a dominant force in Western literary studies in the late 1970s, when feminist theory more broadly conceived was applied to linguistic and literary matters.Unlike the formalistic critical approach, this type of literary criticism insists that works are not universal, that is, that they will not always mean more or less the same thing to readers everywhere.In Orientalism (1978), Edward Said, a pioneer of postcolonial criticism and studies, focused on the way in which the colonizing First World has invented false images and myths of the Third (postcolonial) World—stereotypical images and myths that have conveniently justified Western exploitation and domination of Eastern and Middle Eastern cultures and peoples.Leo...

Philosophers explored matters other than those that are today considered philosophical – with treatises covering logic, the physical and biological sciences, ethics, politics, constitutional government, and literary theory.Almost all of Western literature can trace its roots to classical Greek traditions.However because of the literary progress made during this time, classical Greece still has a huge effect on modern Western thought and traditions.As Alfred North Whitehead once said, “philosophy is but a footnote to Plato,” implying that Western literature is no more than a mere afterthought to the literary works of the classical Greeks and furthering insinuating the importance of this period of unparalleled literary growth (“Ancient Gre...

An established view in African literary criticism is entrenched in the need to carve out a niche for the female African writer and critic within the present literary tradition.Subscribers also agree that: ‘African feminist condemnation is definitely engaged criticism in much the same way as enlightened African literary condemnation grapples with decolonization and feminist criticism with the politics of male literary supremacy.Clearly, persuasive African literary significant and logical strategies should have the potential to accept and practice Africa’s right to an all-inclusive tradition.Drastically there is usually no proposal to western women to share western cultural customs with African women or their own Africanized sisters.Rather...

Recently, some of the classical plays have been successfully revised by shortening episodes and by introducing modern stage techniques and devices.A playwright himself, he adapted many of Shakespeare’s plays to the Thai stage.(See also Music, Oriental.)Many Western works have been translated.The best expression of the Thai literary genius is found in poetry.

In the later, “second wave” ecocriticism, Meeker’s adoption of an ecophilosophical position with apparent scientific sanction as a measure of literary value tended to prevail over Williams’s ideological and historical critique of the shifts in a literary genre’s representation of nature.Another early ecocritical text, Joseph Meeker’s The Comedy of Survival (1974), proposed a version of an argument that was later to dominate ecocriticism and environmental philosophy; that environmental crisis is caused primarily by a cultural tradition in the West of separation of culture from nature, and elevation of the former to moral predominance.[citation needed] In the mid-1980s, scholars began to work collectively to establish ecocritism as a genre...

* 1 Evolution of ecocriticism in literary studies .Ecocriticism is an intentionally broad approach that is known by a number of other designations, including “green (cultural) studies”, “ecopoetics”, and “environmental literary criticism”.More recently, in an article that extends ecocriticism to Shakespearean studies, Estok argues that ecocriticism is more than “simply the study of Nature or natural things in literature; rather, it is any theory that is committed to effecting change by analyzing the function–thematic, artistic, social, historical, ideological, theoretical, or otherwise–of the natural environment, or aspects of it, represented in documents (literary or other) that contribute to material practices in material worlds” (“...

`Rewriting’ is the key word here which is used by Lefevere as a `convenient `umbrella-term’ to refer to most of the activities traditionally connected with literary studies: criticism, as well as translation, anthologization, the writing of literary history and the editing of texts-in fact, all those aspects of literary studies which establish and validate the value-structures of canons.He modified, omitted, and rewrote his poems in the manner of the Orientalists to cater to his Western audience (1996).The `original’ versus `copy’ dichotomy is deeply rooted in the Western thought.A literary text would implicate not only other verbal texts but also other modes of signification like food, fashion, local medicinal systems, metaphysical syst...

This is one way of tradition of the Filipinos, also as we use polite words to respect them like po or opo especially when they ask questions.The challenge for the writer of the literary piece is to be able to creatively incorporate the realities of society into the written work.In the literary pieces studied, there is always an element of being Filipino present.These are life’s realities, and when used in the literary piece, become effective because readers are able to relate to them.We should be thankful and regard it as a blessing.

Taoism (Daoism .Hinduism is more than a concept, but the whole tradition of living for millions of followers.Eastern religious traditions represent a unique combination of cultural and social norms, beliefs and literary traditions of society.Unfortunately, Western tradition ignores the role of mind and rejects the opinion that it is possible to cure a body through mind.Most of its philosophical and medial practices should be employed by modern (Western) medicine.

Reading Bloom’s book should be the beginning of the literary saga for any individual, not the end!To him he is the be-all and end-all of the canon that he defines for the Western world, the standard by which one judges all literature.Therefore, those who have read the Western Canon of Bloom have admitted that it has been the most rewarding experience of their lives.If he were to cross it, his perspective about the entire mass of literature, would have changed, and he would have understood the meaningfulness and meaningless of the literary classics.Both are the comparable processes of the literary genius latent in an individual.

Hospitality can also be felt from the lines of Odyssey since event here involved beggars asking for help and there the Greek’s tradition on helping others was showcased.There appears to be ambiguity about what virtue really implies.The values of ancient Greek literature have highly influenced western thinking and modes of action while the Bhagavad-Gita has been a major source of spiritual wisdom not only in the East but the whole world as well.Tactical trickery was also said to be an influence of this literary work in the ancient Greek wars.When we talk about the Ancient Greece our minds would definitely come across philosophers like Socrates who pioneered the fundamentals of modern Western philosophy (Ancient Greece, 2008) .

Urdu then gained use as a literary language in Delhi and Lucknow.During the mid-19th century in the great ports of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, a prose literary tradition arose—encompassing the novel, short story, essay, and literary drama (this last incorporating both classical Sanskrit and Western models)—that gradually engulfed the customary Indian verse genres.Before then, any work of literature would have been composed in the literary languages: Sanskrit or one of the Prakrits in the north or Tamil in the Dravidian south.The Punjabi government established a Ghalib literary award in his memory, in 1998. .In this early period, which ended in about 1500, the main literary productions in all the languages of India were versions of st...

Lawino’s lines epitomize and reflect p’Bitek’s espousal of both the Acholi and Western cultures but more importantly hold a universal quality in addition to cultural duality.Thereby, analyses of the various literary techniques in Song of Lawino demonstrate that author Okot p’Bitek utilizes the specific techniques to suggest that both the Acholi and Western cultures be embraced, ultimately establishing the importance of integrating both old and new cultures when in need of a resolution.It is nonetheless vital to remember that p’Bitek expresses his concern for the Western culture in a major way by publishing the English translation of the work, despite the trivial, inevitable downsides that follow.P’Bitek skillfully incorporates imageries ...

It is easy to point out that another major theme of the book is the literary devices employed in ethnographies, and in which the rhetoric issue has been mostly discussed.Asad, T. (2002) ‘From the history of colonial anthropology to the anthropology of Western hegemony’, in Vincent, J.Same as the literary outputs, ethnographies shape the relations with the audiences through texts (Xu 2001).Second, going back to the very first stage, I would argue, different backgrounds of Western and non-Western ethnographers shape two distinguished patterns of reflexive thinking.Moreover, anthropology from then on, was not only carried out by Europeans and Americans, but also by those from the so-called Third World who were studying their own cultures; a...

And since the dominant critics and being also creative writers from the Western world had access to the institutions of education, the black writers have been excluded.Finally, her major objection to the race for theory brings out the question: For whom are we doing what are we doing when we do literary criticism?’ (Christian, 235).Black Arts Movement in 60’s tried to create Black Literary Theory and she explains that when the theory is not rooted in practice it becomes prescriptive, exclusive, elitist.And from literary history, the writing disappears if there is no response to it and the tradition of many countries and races (especially the tradition of Black people) has to continue and survive.First of all, Barbara states that the firs...

So the Orient is not an actual place, rather it is a “system of representations framed by political forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and later, Western empire” (Said 1978: 202).Ahdaf Soueif seems to have found a space, despite the fact that she does not belong exclusively to either the Eastern or the Western literary circuit, which allows her to harmonize both her Egyptian and English roots.This claim is based upon Spivak’s presumption that the subaltern must adapt their way of thinking, speaking and writing to a more Western model if they want to be heard.Spivak elaborates on her discussion of the exclusion of subaltern groups by referring to the contemporary and ongoing epistemic suppression ...

The rise of Islam in the 7th century led to the rapid rise of Arabic as a major literary language in the region.Historians disagree on when written record keeping became closer to literature, but the earliest literary texts date from around a millennium after the invention of writing.The Renaissance in Western Europe revived Greek and Latin importance as literary languages.Thus, the early writings of ancient Sumer, by any reasonable definition, do not constitute literature.The earliest literary authors known by name are Ptahhotep (who wrote in Egyptian) and Enheduanna (who wrote in Sumerian), dating from the twenty-fourth and twenty-third centuries BC respectively.