Romanticism, Nationalism, and the Revolt Against TheoryUniversity of Chicago Press, 1993 - 243 頁 Why has Anglo-American culture for so long regarded "theory" with intense suspicion? In this important contribution to the history of critical theory, David Simpson argues that a nationalist myth underlies contemporary attacks on theory. Theory's antagonists, Simpson shows, invoke the same criteria of common sense and national solidarity as did the British intellectuals who rebelled against "theory" and "method" during the French Revolution. Simpson demonstrates the close association between "theory" and "method" and shows that by the mid-eighteenth century, "method" had acquired distinctly subversive associations in England. Attributed increasingly to the French and the Germans, "method" paradoxically evoked images both of inhuman rationality and unbridled sentimentality; in either incarnation, it was seen as a threat to what was claimed to be authentically British. Simpson develops these paradigms in relation to feminism, the gendering of Anglo-American culture, and the emergence of literature and literary criticism as antitheoretical discourses. He then looks at the Romantic poets' response to this confining ideology of the cultural role of literature. Finally, Simpson considers postmodern theory's claims for the radical energy of nonrational or antirationalist positions. This is an essential book not only for students of the Romantic period and intellectual historians concerned with the idea of "method," but for anyone interested in the historical background of today's debates over the excesses and possibilities of "theory." |
內容
A HISTORY FOR THEORY | 1 |
1 THE POLITICS OF METHOD | 19 |
2 THE CULTURE OF BRITISH COMMON SENSE | 40 |
3 THE MYTH OF FRENCH EXCESS | 64 |
4 THE IMAGE OF GERMANY | 84 |
5 ENGENDERING METHOD | 104 |
6 SYSTEM AND LITERATURE | 126 |
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熱門章節
第 234 頁 - Elements of the Critical Philosophy; Containing a Concise Account of its Origin and Tendency; A View of all the Works Published by its Founder, Professor Immanuel Kant; and a Glossary for the Explanation of Terms and Phrases. To which are added Three Philological Essays, chiefly translated from the German of John Christopher Adelung.