A S L 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Postcolonialism, Sacvan Bercovitch, New Criticism
Document Summary
#4 literary and cultural theory: development of the study of literatures (in english, literary history, canon formation, development of the study of literatures (in english) Exclusion of e. g. oral literature, working class, ethnic minorities, colonized cultures, women"s literature. The result of a theory-based process of construction; they produce models and narratives of the past with the assistance of literary historical categories. Constructed: writing of a literary history has its own history literary histories on the british isles (before and in the 18th century): Anthologies, historical genre survey, catalogue & biographies (author-centered) then first narrative histories. First literary histories were only about male/white authors, females and blacks later (-> limited canon) Thomas warton, the history of english poetry, from the close of the eleventh to the commencement of the eighteenth. Robert chambers, history of english language and literature. John neal, american writers (first series of papers in a magazine, later publ. in book form)
