Social Science

Theory of Literature

---

We must first make a distinction between literature and literary study. The two are distinct activities: one is creative, an
art j the other, if not precisely a science, is a species of knowledge or of learning. There have been attempts, of course, to obliterate
this distinction. For instance, it has been argued that one cannot
understand literature unless one writes it, that one cannot and should not study Pope without trying his own hand at heroic couplets or an Elizabethan drama without himself writing a drama in blank verse. 1 * Yet useful as the experience of literary
creation is to him, the task of the student is completely distinct. He must translate his experience of literature into intellectual terms, assimilate it to a coherent scheme which must be rational if it is to be knowledge. It may be true that the subject matter
of his study is irrational or at least contains strongly unrational
elements ; but he will not be therefore in any other position than
the historian of painting or the musicologist or, for that matter,
the sociologist or the anatomist.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

-

Call Number

-

Publisher

: ., 1948

Collation

1-424

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

-

Classification

NONE

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

-

Subject(s)

Theory of Literature

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment