Book Description
In answering questions such as what is `modern' in literarycriticism sincethe beginnings of the Early Modern age, this book doesnot follow the lines ofRene Wellek's famous History of ModernCriticism. It does not re-examinethe history of literary theories andpoetics. It rather focuses on theconcepts and uses of what can becalled `practical criticism' (Buchkritik) and the historicity of itsinstitutional and categorical framesof references.Viewing them asfundamental structures of literary production, reception and communication, this study traces the emergence of a temporalization of cultural processing, the periodical organization of a critical response as published in the new medium of the journal, and the development of different uses and functions of the literary canon.In analysis, twobasic paradigms of criticism have to be confronted: theclassicalmodel of a critica perennis, as part of grammatica as aninstitutionof learning, and the new conception and practice of critiquemondaine,which emerges as an institution in its own right during the 16thand17th centuries in Europe. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

Book Description
This book vigorously confronts an intractable problem of literary study: the early attempts to articulate what is conceived as being obscure, unsayable, difficult: Unwilling to accept the ubiquitous explanation of obscurity as a characteristic of modern and postmodern writing only, Mehtonen traces the continuity of theories within the pre-modern formation of literary study in the arts of poetics, rhetoric, grammar and dialectic.

This volume is a theoretically and historically sophisticated attempt to make sense of the connections between critical, stylistic and philosophical debates. It will be welcomed by readers with an interest in literary theory, the history of ideas and concepts, and pre-nineteenth-century study of language. ... Read more