Structuralism in literary theory

By Margolis, Joseph

‘Structuralism’ is a term embracing a family of theories that between them address all phenomena of the human world – notably language, literature, cookery, kinship relations, dress, human ...

Aesthetics

By Budd, Malcolm

Aesthetics owes its name to Alexander Baumgarten who derived it from the Greek aisthanomai, which means perception by means of the senses (see Baumgarten, A.G.). As the ...

Barthes, Roland (1915–80)

By Risser, James

In the field of contemporary literary studies, the French essayist and cultural critic Roland Barthes cannot be easily classified. His early work on language and culture was strongly ...

Structuralism

By Culler, Jonathan

The term ‘structuralism’ can be applied to any analysis that emphasizes structures and relations, but it usually designates a twentieth-century European (especially French) school of thought that applies ...

Post-structuralism

By Gutting, Gary

Post-structuralism is a late-twentieth-century development in philosophy and literary theory, particularly associated with the work of Jacques Derrida and his followers. It originated as a reaction against structuralism, ...

Saussure, Ferdinand de (1857–1913)

By Holdcroft, David

Though he made a major contribution to the comparative and historical studies which dominated nineteenth-century linguistics, Saussure is best known today for the development of a radically different ...

Artistic interpretation

By Goldman, Alan H.

Interpretation aims to advance understanding by providing explanations of various kinds. In art, it should aim to maximize our understanding and appreciation of a work, and enable us ...

Structuralism in linguistics

By Holdcroft, David

The term structural linguistics can be used to refer to two movements which developed independently of each other. The first is European and can be characterized as post-Saussurean, ...

Linguistics, philosophy of

By Rey, Georges; Blair, Dan

Although related to issues in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of linguistics is a largely distinct topic, being concerned not so much with language itself but with ...

Artist’s intention

By Taylor, Paul

W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley’s famous paper ‘The Intentional Fallacy’ (1946) began one of the central debates in aesthetics and literary theory of the last half-century. By ...

Artistic interpretation

Interpretation aims to advance understanding by providing explanations of various kinds. In art, it should aim to maximize our understanding and appreciation of a work, and enable us ...

Narrative

By Currie, Gregory

Narrative, in its broadest sense, is the means by which a story is told, whether fictional or not, and regardless of medium. Novels, plays, films, historical texts, diaries ...

Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1908–2009)

By Harris, Olivia

Lévi-Strauss is one of the outstanding figures of mid-twentieth century intellectual life, influential far beyond the boundaries of France or the French language, and he has continued to ...

Narrative

Narrative, in its broadest sense, is the means by which a story is told, whether fictional or not, and regardless of medium. Novels, plays, films, historical texts, diaries ...

Todorov, Tzvetan (1936–)

By Lionnet, Francoise

Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian thinker and literary theorist who lives and works in France. His thought is ‘structuralist’ in that it seeks stable abstract principles explanatory of, ...

Russian literary Formalism

By Any, Carol

Russian literary Formalism, an active movement in Russian literary criticism from about 1915 to 1929, approached the literary work as a self-referential, formed artefact rather than as an ...

Poetry

By Shusterman, Richard M.

Though poetry today seems a relatively marginal topic in philosophy, it was crucial for philosophy’s own initial self-definition. In ancient Greece, poetry was revered as the authoritative expression ...