| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Importance | Pioneer of Modernism, influenced Imagism • Died in WWI at age 34 - limited but influential output • Essay published posthumously in Speculations (1924) • Laid foundation for anti-Romantic modernist aesthetics |
| Attack on Romanticism | "Romanticism is spilt religion" • Romanticism = excessive, emotional, sentimental • Belief in human perfectibility/infinitude (false) • Sees man as unlimited, perfectible (WRONG according to Hulme) • Loose, vague language • Subjective, self-indulgent |
| Classical Values | "Classicism" = NEW modern poetry (NOT neoclassical) • Precise, hard, clear language • Recognizes human limitation, original sin • Man is limited, imperfect, finite • Objective, disciplined, restrained • Order, form, craftsmanship |
| Famous Metaphor | "Romanticism is like a bucket, classicism like a pail" • Romantic: Slops over edges (excess, emotion) • Classical: Contained, precise limits |
| Precise Visual Images | Poetry should use concrete, visual imagery • "Avoid abstractions" • "Fresh metaphors" to see things newly • Influenced Imagist movement (Pound, H.D.) |
| Anti-Humanist | Rejects humanistic optimism • Man NOT center of universe • Religious/philosophical conservatism • Pessimistic view of human nature |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Imagism Defined | Poetic movement emphasizing clear, precise images • Founded 1912 by Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Richard Aldington • Reaction against Victorian sentimentality and verbosity • Short-lived as organized movement (1912-1917) but huge influence |
| Three Imagist Principles (1913) | 1. Direct treatment of the "thing": No abstractions, concrete images 2. Use absolutely no word that does not contribute: Economy, precision 3. Compose in sequence of the musical phrase, NOT metronome: Free verse, rhythm of speech Pound's manifesto published in Poetry magazine (1913) |
| Image Definition | "An intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time" • Image = fusion of thought and feeling • Instantaneous presentation • NOT description, but presentation |
| Famous Example | Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" (1913) - 2-line imagist masterpiece: "The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough." • NO explanation, just juxtaposition of images • Reader makes connection |
| Influences | • Chinese poetry (via Ernest Fenollosa) • Japanese haiku • T.E. Hulme's ideas • French Symbolists |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| "Make It New" | Pound's famous slogan • Modernist imperative: break with past, innovate • Paradox: Make it new BY studying tradition • Renewal through engagement with tradition |
| "Literature is news that STAYS news" | Definition of great literature • Timeless relevance •永恆 Always fresh, never stale |
| "The natural object is always the adequate symbol" | • Concrete over abstract • Things speak for themselves • No need for allegorical interpretation |
| "Dichten = Condensare" | "Poetry = Condensation" • Economy of language • Maximum meaning, minimum words • Compression essential to poetry |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Essay Importance | MOST INFLUENTIAL modernist critical essay • Published 1919 in The Egoist • Revolutionized understanding of tradition and creativity • Foundation of New Critical approach |
| Historical Sense | "The historical sense involves a perception...of the pastness of the past and of its presence" • Past is NOT dead, but ALIVE in present • Writer must be aware of whole European tradition from Homer onward • Tradition = "simultaneous order" of all literature • NOT chronological, but synchronic (all existing at once) |
| Existing Order Modified | When new work appears, ENTIRE tradition rearranges • New work alters our understanding of past • Past and present mutually define each other • NOT linear progress, but constant revaluation • Example: Joyce's Ulysses changes how we read Homer |
| Impersonal Theory of Poetry | "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion" • ATTACK on Romantic expressionism (Wordsworth's "emotion recollected") • Poet's personality irrelevant • Poetry = transformation of emotion into art object • "Not expression of personality, but escape from personality" |
| Objective Correlative | "The only way of expressing emotion in art is by finding an 'objective correlative'" • Set of objects, situation, chain of events that evoke particular emotion • Example: Macbeth's guilt → blood imagery, "Out, damned spot" • External formula for internal feeling • Criticized Hamlet for LACKING objective correlative (emotion exceeds cause) |
| Catalyst Analogy | Poet's mind like platinum catalyst in chemical reaction • Catalyst necessary but unchanged • Elements combine in presence of catalyst • Poet = medium for experience, not source • Process happens IN poet, not OF poet |
| Mature Poet vs. Immature | Mature poet surrenders to tradition, doesn't assert personality • Immature: "I have something important to say" • Mature: "The work speaks, not I" |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Revival of Metaphysicals | Eliot championed 17th-century Metaphysical poets (Donne, Herbert, Marvell) • Led to MAJOR revaluation: Metaphysicals elevated, Milton/Romantics demoted • Essay written 1921 for TLS (Times Literary Supplement) • Changed canon permanently |
| Unified Sensibility | "A thought to Donne was an experience; it modified his sensibility" • Metaphysicals could FUSE thought and feeling • Intellect and emotion united, not separated • Mind and body, spirit and sense = integrated • Poetry of complex, unified consciousness |
| Dissociation of Sensibility | "In the 17th century a dissociation of sensibility set in" • MAJOR CONCEPT (though later disputed) • After Metaphysicals: thought and feeling SEPARATED • Milton and Dryden onwards: poets either THINK or FEEL, not both simultaneously • Romantics: Pure emotion (feeling without thought) • Victorians: Pure thought (thinking without feeling) • Modernists try to REUNIFY |
| When Did It Happen? | • Mid-17th century (English Civil War period) • Linked to social/political upheaval • Later critics challenged this (Frank Kermode, etc.) but concept hugely influential |
| Difficulty & Complexity | "Poets must be difficult" • Modern life is complex, poetry must reflect complexity • "Our civilization comprehends great variety and complexity...the poet must be difficult" • Metaphysicals' "conceits" = appropriate complexity • Justifies Eliot's own obscure style (The Waste Land) |
| Heterogeneous Ideas | Metaphysicals yoke "heterogeneous ideas" together • Example: Donne's compass image (lovers = compass legs) • Unexpected, startling comparisons • Wit, intellectual playfulness |
| Essay | Key Points |
|---|---|
| "Hamlet and His Problems" (1919) | • Objective Correlative coined here • Hamlet FAILS as art: emotion exceeds objective cause • Hamlet's disgust greater than Queen's guilt can explain • Controversial: attacking Shakespeare's greatest play! |
| "The Function of Criticism" (1923) | • Critic should analyze, interpret, NOT judge • "Comparison and analysis" = critical tasks • Avoid impressionism, personal taste • Establish "facts" about literature |
| "The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism" (1933) | • Survey of English criticism from Sidney to present • Poetry's function changes with society • Modern criticism must be "more scientific" |
| "What is a Classic?" (1944) | • Virgil = supreme classic • Classic = maturity of civilization expressed in mature language • Universality, completeness, comprehensiveness • No English work fully "classic" (not even Shakespeare) |
| "Poetry and Drama" (1951) | • On verse drama potential • Eliot's own plays (Murder in the Cathedral, The Cocktail Party) • Poetic drama can speak to modern audience |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Scientific Criticism | Attempt to make criticism "scientific" and objective • Based on psychology (not impressionism) • Founded at Cambridge, influenced New Criticism • Empirical approach to literature |
| Practical Criticism (1929) | REVOLUTIONARY pedagogical experiment • Gave Cambridge students poems WITHOUT author names/dates • Asked for interpretations • Results: Students made terrible mistakes, prejudices revealed • Founded "close reading" method • Focus on TEXT itself, not biography/history |
| Close Reading | Detailed attention to words, images, structure • Analyze poem as autonomous object • No external information needed • Became foundation of New Criticism |
| Two Uses of Language | 1. Scientific/Referential: Refers to facts, verifiable 2. Emotive/Poetic: Evokes feelings, attitudes (NOT verifiable) • Poetry uses EMOTIVE language primarily • Poetry's "truth" = psychological effect, NOT factual truth • Defends poetry against positivist attack |
| Value of Poetry | Poetry organizes and balances impulses • Good poetry = complex equilibrium of attitudes • Bad poetry = simple, one-sided • Poetry = "supreme form of emotive language" |
| Stock Responses | Predictable, clichéd emotional reactions • Good poetry avoids stock responses • Challenges reader to fresh response • Bad poetry exploits easy emotions (sentimentality) |
| Tenor and Vehicle | Terms for analyzing metaphor: • Tenor = underlying idea/subject • Vehicle = image/figure used to convey it • Example: "Juliet is the sun" → Tenor: Juliet; Vehicle: sun • Widely adopted terminology |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Work Importance | Landmark of close reading and New Criticism • Published 1930 (Empson was 24 years old!) • Student of I.A. Richards at Cambridge • Revolutionized understanding of poetic language |
| Ambiguity Defined | "Any verbal nuance that gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language" • Ambiguity = RICHNESS, not flaw • Multiple meanings = poetic strength • Complexity as virtue |
| Seven Types (Brief) | 1. Simple metaphor: Word refers to several things at once 2. Two meanings resolved into one: Alternative meanings converge 3. Pun: Two ideas connected by one word 4. Alternative meanings combine to clarify meaning: Different meanings illuminate each other 5. Fortunate confusion: Author discovering idea in act of writing 6. Contradictory meanings: Statement says two opposite things 7. Full contradiction: Fundamental division in author's mind Don't memorize all 7 in detail for MCQ - know general concept! |
| Close Reading Master | Empson's readings extraordinarily detailed, ingenious • Sometimes over-interprets • But demonstrates richness of poetic language • Influenced New Critics (Brooks, Warren, etc.) |
| Example Analysis | Shakespeare's "Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang" (Sonnet 73) Empson finds MULTIPLE layers: architectural (church choirs), seasonal (autumn branches), religious (Reformation dissolving monasteries), musical, etc. |
| Critic | Key Work(s) | Main Contribution | Famous Concept |
|---|---|---|---|
| T.E. Hulme | "Romanticism and Classicism" (1924) | Anti-Romantic; Precise imagery; Modernist foundation | "Romanticism is spilt religion" |
| Ezra Pound | Imagist manifestos (1912-13) | Imagism; Direct treatment; Economy | "Make it new"; Image as "complex" |
| T.S. Eliot | "Tradition..." (1919); "Metaphysical Poets" (1921) | Impersonal theory; Tradition; Dissociation; Canon revision | Objective Correlative; Dissociation of Sensibility |
| I.A. Richards | Practical Criticism (1929) | Close reading; Scientific criticism; Two uses of language | Tenor/Vehicle; Stock responses |
| William Empson | Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930) | Ambiguity as richness; Close reading virtuosity | Seven Types of Ambiguity |
| Question Type | Key Facts |
|---|---|
| Hulme's Death | Died in WWI 1917, age 34; Works published posthumously |
| Imagist Manifesto Date | 1913 in Poetry magazine (Pound) |
| Imagist Poem Example | Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" (1913) - 2 lines |
| Most Important Eliot Essay | "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1919) |
| Objective Correlative Defined In | "Hamlet and His Problems" (1919) - Eliot |
| Dissociation of Sensibility Essay | "The Metaphysical Poets" (1921) - Eliot |
| When Did Dissociation Happen? | Mid-17th century (Milton/Dryden onwards) |
| Eliot's Two Famous Quotes | 1. "Poetry is...escape from emotion...escape from personality" 2. "Our civilization...the poet must be difficult" |
| Richards's Experiment | Practical Criticism (1929): Poems WITHOUT names → Close reading born |
| Tenor vs. Vehicle | Richards's terms: Tenor = subject; Vehicle = image |
| Empson's Age | Published Seven Types at age 24 (1930) |
| Empson's Teacher | I.A. Richards (Cambridge) |
| Ambiguity = ? | RICHNESS/STRENGTH, not flaw (Empson) |
| Pound's Slogan | "Make it new"; "Literature is news that STAYS news" |
| Don't Confuse | Distinction |
|---|---|
| Hulme's "Classicism" vs. Neoclassicism | Hulme: "Classicism" = NEW modern poetry (precision, hard images) Neoclassical: 18th century imitation of ancients Different meanings of "classical"! |
| Objective Correlative vs. Dissociation of Sensibility | Objective Correlative: External formula for emotion (technique) Dissociation: Historical split of thought/feeling (diagnosis) |
| Richards's Two Uses vs. Empson's Ambiguity | Richards: Scientific vs. Emotive language (language TYPES) Empson: Multiple meanings in same word (language RICHNESS) |
| Imagism vs. Impressionism | Imagism: Precise, concrete images (Pound) Impressionism: Vague, subjective responses (what Imagists REJECTED) |
| Tradition (Eliot) vs. Romanticism (Hulme) | Eliot: Embrace tradition, historical sense Hulme: Reject Romantic tradition Both modernists but different emphases |
Modern Criticism Complete (to T.S. Eliot)
Hulme | Pound | Eliot | Richards | Empson