supposedly objective analysis of purely aesthetic matters (think "textbook" literary terms); supposedly, too, the sole intrinsic approach, while all others are extrinsic; e.g., Formalism (including New Criticism), various rhetorical & genre theories, Structuralism, & (to a great extent, even) Deconstruction ARTIST
i.e., the author (and his/her inner, inspired,
self-expressive/emotive, soul-burning "LAMP"); e.g., expressive (expressionist) criticism, biographical criticism, and much psychoanalytic criticism (which ponders the unconscious underpinnings of an authors creativity) AUDIENCE
i.e., the reader(s); key terms here include
"affective" and "pragmatic" (that is, how does the work move the reader, to emotional response, or even action?); e.g., impressionistic criticism & various brands of reader-response theory (the latter usually a more concerted analysis of how/why readers respond as they do) UNIVERSE
i.e., the "world" (and culture) out there,
"outside" the author/text/reader; think the "real world" (as in art being a realistic or Platonic "MIRROR" [mimesis] of said world); or (more usually today): historical-political worldviews/ideologies/values-systems imposed on the text by the critic (e.g., feminism, Marxism, postcolonial & critical race theory, queer theory, & ecocriticism) Historical Time-Line (I)
Classical GreecePlato: art as a reflection of his
idealistic World of Forms (UNIVERSE); Aristotle: art as catharsis (AUDIENCE); Aristotle's genre prescriptions (WORK)
Medieval & Renaissance periods (heck, well into the
17th & 18th centuries)not only various versions of Platonic mimesis (UNIVERSE) and Aristotelian catharsis (AUDIENCE), but a strong (Christian) moral-didactic emphasis (UNIVERSE) Historical Time-Line (II)
19th-century Romanticismboth a new emphasis on
the individuals creativity (expressionism: ARTIST) and a comparable freedom for the critic to be subjective & impressionistic (AUDIENCE)
19th-century RealismStendhal's mimetic notion of
the novel as "a mirror carried along the road" (UNIVERSE) Historical Time-Line (III)
1st half of the 20th century:
highlighted, above all, by a new emphasis on the
(form of the) WORK of art per se (New Criticism, Russian Formalism, structuralism)
however, the late 19th- and early 20th centuries
also included lots of (old-fashioned) biographical criticism (ARTIST) and (old-fashioned) historical criticism (UNIVERSE: that is, how does this author's work reflect the "world," the "reality," of his/her socio- cultural milieu?) Historical Time-Line (IV)
1st half of the 20th century (continued):
but also a new Freudian psychoanalysis of the
ARTIST
and also the rise of Marxist theory (UNIVERSE)
and of reader-response theories (AUDIENCE) Historical Time-Line (V)
2nd half of the 20th century:
the climax of structuralism, and its contradictory spawn, poststructuralism (both WORK, at last) the climax of reader-response theories (AUDIENCE) the climax of Marxism, and the advent of other politically/culturally based agendas, like feminism, race studies, and postcolonial theory (UNIVERSE)
1st half of the 21st century: the ultimate victory of Reality
TV, 12-year-old MTV divas, and Kill Abdul: the Video Game!? Coda/Notes
Abrams' "quaternity" has been derived from
Abrams, M.H. The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition. London: Oxford UP, 1953. (see especially pages 6-7)
All misreadings thereof are the complete and utter fault of
Thomas C. Gannon, U of Nebraska-Lincoln, Aug. 2004.