Literature /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Widdowson, Peter.
Imprint:London ; New York : Routledge, 1999.
Description:1 online resource (x, 229 pages)
Language:English
Series:The New critical idiom
New critical idiom.
Subject:Literature.
Littérature.
TRAVEL -- Special Interest -- Literary.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- General.
Literature.
Literaturwissenschaft
Literatur
Definition
Literatuurwetenschap.
Theorie.
Letterkunde.
Electronic books.
Electronic books.
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11125939
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:0585460426
9780585460420
0203169433
9780203169438
9780415169134
0415169135
9780415169141
0415169143
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-229).
Print version record.
Summary:"What was 'Literature' and what is 'the literary'?" "This introductory volume provides an accessible overview of the history of 'Literature' as a cultural concept, and reflects on the contemporary nature, place and function of what 'the literary' might mean for us today. This volume offers a concise history of the canonic concept of 'literature' from its earliest origins, illustrates the kinds of theoretical issues which are currently invoked by the term 'literary', and promotes the potential 'uses of the literary' within a millennial culture." "With Literature Peter Widdowson provides a thought-provoking essay on the contemporary relevance of 'the literary' for students."--Jacket.
Other form:Print version: Widdowson, Peter. Literature. London ; New York : Routledge, 1999 0415169135
Review by Choice Review

This is the 12th volume in Routledge's series "The New Critical Idiom," which has produced a few excellent works (e.g., Tony Davies's Humanism, 1997) and other less distinguished volumes that nevertheless function as gateway introductions to major fields (e.g., Ania Loomba's Colonialism/Postcolonialism, 1998). Widdowson presents the debates around "literature" with considerable learning and wit, and a modicum of fairness. M. Arnold, T.S. Eliot, and F.R. Leavis get the space they deserve, but the volume remains resolutely Anglocentric in its selection of theoretical and fictional texts. Although this bias is understandable, the neglect of thinkers on aesthetics and the literary--from Aristotle to M. Bakhtin to H. Cixous--is not. The sociological excursions are the least well handled parts of the book. The core material on what has changed the meaning of literature is useful though incomplete; chapter 4, "What Is the Literary?," can and will be used as a text in courses on criticism and theory. Recommended to undergraduate and graduate collections of literary theory. K. Tololyan Wesleyan University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review