(urth) Thecla's "Identity"
Ross Arlen Tieken
ross.a.tieken at gmail.com
Fri Apr 5 09:58:20 PDT 2013
New Criticism is also appropriate because Wolfe, while primarily
inspired by Borges, is also inspired by the Catholic English writing
in the 1930's to the 1960's--Tolkien, Eliot, Pound, Tate, etc.--
Modernist-Traditionalist writers, a tradition in which I think Wolfe
has a prominent place. The New Criticism was supposed to encourage and
analyze this type of writing. "Meaning is reconstruction rather than
deconstruction" is actually a beautiful little summary of why this is
so. Remember that modernism is not postmodernism (although they are in
close relation), and Wolfe is definitely a modernist writer.
R
On Apr 5, 2013, at 11:42 AM, Marc Aramini wrote:
> I agree- new criticism (and historical criticism for valid context
> most of the time) are the most sound and applicable techniques.
>
> I feel like the new critical approach would get the most out of
> Wolfe- meaning is reconstruction rather than deconstruction. For
> example, Reading e e cummings "anyone lived in a pretty how town"
> through that lens makes perfect sense, though words are used outside
> their normal parts of speech- meaning is reinforced rather than
> lost. Much of post modern thought is intentionally losing one self
> in a haze, getting trapped in the Cartesian circle with no egress in
> the absence of absolute parameters of signification.
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Apr 5, 2013, at 8:07 AM, DAVID STOCKHOFF <dstockhoff at verizon.net>
> wrote:
> They have their own abstract methods, and while they try to make
> those methods concrete, they also make them inflexible and blind.
>>
>> I always liked New Criticism because I could get my mind around a
>> "perfect" but "perfectly flawed" structure, where function
>> transcends form. But the French guys always lost me at some point.
>>
>>
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Ross Arlen Tieken
Religious Studies
Rice University
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