A History Of Modern Criticism Rene Wellek Pdf 'link' Instant

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What makes the History unique is its fierce anti-relativism. In an era that would soon worship theory’s endless deferrals, Wellek insisted on judgment. He was a Kantian at heart: criticism should seek the intrinsic structure of a work of art. Consequently, his History reads like a courtroom drama. He praises the Russian Formalists for their focus on literariness , but convicts them of mechanistic narrowness. He admires T.S. Eliot’s “impersonal theory,” but finds his practical criticism full of personal prejudice. Every thinker is measured against the Platonic ideal of a "criticism that illuminates literature." a history of modern criticism rene wellek pdf

Wellek was a staunch defender of "intrinsic criticism"—the idea that literature should be studied as literature, not as a footnote to biography, sociology, or psychology. His History of Modern Criticism is not merely a chronology; it is a polemic. He believed that to understand a critic, you must first understand their epistemology: How do they define art? What is the relationship between form and content? Have you successfully found a legal PDF of a specific volume