Examines both Western and Japanese epic traditions to argue for a new concept of the epic--an epic of peace, toward which the genre is evolving globally.

Publisher description

This text provides an excellent introduction and overview of Narratology, a rapidly growing field in the humanities. Literary narratologists have provided many key concepts and analytical tools which are widely used in the interdisciplinary analysis of such narrative features as plot, point of view, speech presentation, ideological perspective and interpretation. The introduction explains the central concepts of narratology, their historical development, and draws together contemporary trends from many different disciplines into common focus. It offers a compendium of the development of narratology from classical poetics to the present. The essays are all prefaced by individual forewords helping the reader to place each individual selection in context. Recent developments are assessed across disciplines, highlighting the mutual influences of narratology and deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminism, film and media studies.

In The Age of Criticism five key concepts of the literary criticism synthesized in the late Renaissance in Italy are examined in depth to show how the shape of literary attitudes in the whole modern world was considerably influenced and determined by sixteenth-century Italian philosophers and literary theorists. The five concepts examined are: poetry as imitation; poetry as a concrete-universal; poetry as a purgation; the poetic imagination; and the conflict between poetry as art and poetry as furor. For the sake of emphasizing the unity of the development of literary theory, the concern is almost entirely with the Italian writers of the period between 1540 and 1613, but the ultimate significance of their work lies in their contribution to the development of the culture of the West in modern times. Sperone Speroni, Ludovico Castelvetro, Francesco Patrizi, Giacopo Mazzoni, Torquato Tasso, and Paolo Beni emerge as literary critics of major importance.

This study of the Latin didactic poetry produced by the Jesuits in the early modern period reveals the literary qualities of these works, their compositional methods, and traditions.

This book explores a philosophy of learning inspired by humanistic ideals. It reflects on the transformative possibilities opened up by active engagement with experiential domains. It draws attention to epoch-making transformations in the history of Western civilization that have exposed the dynamic relation between conscience, emotions, and learning. An ecological model of learning is proposed that emphasizes emotional, ethical, and cognitive learning as holistic processes. The model focuses on the pragmatics of learning, the creativity of improvisation, rhetorically mediated experience, emotional settings, and the education of the senses. The book is based on an inclusive worldview. Its fundamental tenet is that rational inquiry, emotions, and morality form a continuum in human nature. Hence the book envisions novel scenarios, where learners are valued for their genuine struggle to realize their humane masterpieces.

Reproduction of the original: A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance by Joel Elias Spingarn