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15. Comment upon the statement: structuralism is a corner stone of modern humanities? start learning
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Structuralism: language as an abstract/formal system of meaningful, arbitrary signs and their relations – linguistics as autonomous part of semiology (general science of signs
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The abstract elements of language are used in speech in various ways. Professor of Cultural Studies Fred Inglis in one of his principal publications Media Theory: start learning
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Structuralism is the theory that all human organization is determined by large, social or psychological structures which have their own irresistible logic independent of human intention, will or purpose
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For Freud the structure of the psyche, for Marx the structure of economics, and for de Saussure the structure of language start learning
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For Freud the structure of the psyche, for Marx the structure of economics, and for de Saussure the structure of language
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all precede the individual human subject or human agent, and pretty well determine what he or she can do in all circumstances start learning
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Structuralism is the methodology that elements of human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure.
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It works to uncover the structures that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel. Alternatively, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, structuralism is "the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations start learning
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These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface fenomena there are constant laws of abstract culture".
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16. New Criticism and its premises. start learning
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New Criticism was a highly influential school of Formalist criticism that flourished from the 1940s to late 1960s.
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New Criticism Occurred Partially in Response To: Biographical Criticism that understood art primarily as a reflection of the author's life (sometimes to the point that the texts themselves weren't even read! start learning
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Competition for dollars and students from sciences in academia. New forms of mass literature and literacy, an increasingly consumerist society and the increasingly visible role of commerce, mass media, and advertising in people's lives.
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New Criticism Tends to Emphasize The text as an autotelic artifact, something complete with in itself, written for its own sake, unified in its form and not dependent on its relation to the author's life or intent, history, or anything else. start learning
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The formal and technical properties of work of art.
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New Critical Assumptions: start learning
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The critic's job is to help us appreciate the technique and form of art and the mastery of the artist
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That the "Western tradition" is an unbroken, internally consistent set of artistic conventions and traditions going back to ancient Greece and continuing up to this day and that good art participates in and extends these traditions. start learning
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Similarly, criticism's job is to uphold these traditions and protect them from encroachments from commercialism, political posturing, and vulgarity.
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hat there are a finite number of good texts (a notion now often tied to "the canon" of texts traditionally taught) start learning
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. The closer that a text comes to achieving an ideal unity, where each element contributes to an overall effect, the more worthy it is of discussion.
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tudying literature is an intrinsically edifying process. It hones the sensibilities and discrimination of students and sets them apart from the unreflective masses. start learning
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That "cream rises," and works of genius will eventually be "vindicated by posterity."
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That there is a firm and fast distinction between "high" art and popular art. start learning
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That good art reflects unchanging, universal human issues, experiences, and values
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Technical definitions and analyses are vital to understanding literature. The text's relationship to a world that extends beyond it is of little interest. start learning
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Critics Associated With It: John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, and Cleanth Brooks. New Critics also frequently looked to the work and criticism of Thomas Stearns Eliot and the essays of Matthew Arnold for inspiration.
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Criticisms Sometimes Made of New Criticism: That it's emphases on technique, unity of effect, and the autotelic status of art works best on the lyric poem, but has problems with larger, more historically recent forms like the novel. start learning
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That it makes the Western tradition out to be more unified than it is by ignoring diversity and contradictory forces within it, and more monadic than it is by ignoring the exchange between non-western and western cultures (Aristotle, for instance, central to new critical concepts, was introduced to medieval Europe via the Islamic world).
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hat artistic standards of value are variable and posterity is fickle. Particular pieces of art are viewed as important because they do important cultural work, represent values that segments of the culture (say editors and English professors) start learning
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represent values that segments of the culture (say editors and English professors) believe are of vital import, or help us understand our history.
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hat the values New Critics celebrated were neither unchanging nor universal, but instead reflected their own, historically and experientially specific concerns, values and ambitions. start learning
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That context is just as important as form to understanding a work of art
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