Literary Criticism from Plato to Postmodernism
The Humanistic Alternative

This book offers a history of literary criticism from Plato to the present.

James Seaton (Author)

9781107514935, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 March 2016

236 pages
21.8 x 14.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.3 kg

'… Seaton can turn a phrase with the best of them … [he has] his own unique style that remains as accessible to the educated layperson as it is to professional scholars of literature. … Held to his own high standards, Seaton succeeds: his chapters force you to consider what role literature has played in your own development, and how that role might play out in the lives of others.' Allen Mendenhall, The University Bookman

This book offers a history of literary criticism from Plato to the present, arguing that this history can best be seen as a dialogue among three traditions - the Platonic, Neoplatonic, and the humanistic, originated by Aristotle. There are many histories of literary criticism, but this is the first to clarify our understanding of the many seemingly incommensurable approaches employed over the centuries by reference to the three traditions. Making its case by careful analyses of individual critics, the book argues for the relevance of the humanistic tradition in the twenty-first century and beyond.

Introduction
1. Plato and Neoplatonism
2. Romanticism and modernism
3. Theory and cultural studies
4. Aristotle and the humanistic tradition
5. Edmund Wilson and Lionel Trilling
6. Democracy, popular culture, and Ralph Ellison
7. Literary criticism, the humanities, and liberal education.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]