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PERIODISATION IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

IMPORTANCE OF LITERERY HISTORY

v  Literary history is very important for the comparatists as it treats literary works as phenomena influenced by time, place and circumstances (Closure of theaters by the Puritans in 1642 and no love poems)

v  Literary history charts their developments and experiments in writing in the hope that global discourse will be stimulated and cultures come to understand one another. It relates, compares, and categorizes the poetry, prose, drama, and reportage of authors at various periods

IMPORTANCE OF LITERERY HISTORIAN

v  The job of a literary historian (one who studies the history of literature) is to describe the historical process of interpretation by arranging the individual  works of art in smaller or large groups according to authorship, genre, style, etc. This arrangement or division of literary works into segments is known as periodisation

v  Rene Wellek (René Wellek was a Czech-American comparative literary critic) finds fault with the fact that no decisive step has been taken to develop the study of history of literature. For a long time literary history was studied as part of social history or history of ideas

v  It was the practice of the historians to talk about books with criticism according to time

v  Now there is a lot of improvement. Scholars have begun to accept the fact that knowledge of literary history (developments of writing) is also accepted as a sign of good education. In the literary history, historical events are explained one after another. The comparatists have to improve the system further

 

The goal of the literary historians should be to establish literary periods by purely literary criteria. Conventionally works are periodised according to

      (i)            different periods of socio-political activities like the Renaissance, the Reformation, Restoration, etc.

    (ii)            sequences of art and style like the Pre-Raphaelite, Gothic, Impressionistic or expressionistic etc.

   (iii)             various schools of thought or movement called Classicism or Romanticism or Periods of Philology (Philology is the study of language in oral and written historical sources) such as the Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, 18th century literature etc. Such labels are not very exact and an alternative mode of Periodisation must be based on literary categories

Idealistic Views about Literature

v  Some  idealistic views about  literature are discussed while choosing a right kind of period study by the comparatists

v  The Personalist View (considers personality the supreme value and the key to the measuring of reality) is that the structure of a literary work is discontinuous. In that case, literary history is an impossibility

v  The Metaphysical View (referring to an idea, doctrine outside of human sense perception) holds  that the work of art is eternal and unchanging over time. Hence, it is not possible for different generations to interpret a work differently

v          The Organicists (Organicism -the view that some systems resemble organisms in having  parts that function in relation to the whole to which they belong) think that literature is growing constantly like an organism. It changes with the creation of new works. But the biological analogy, an evolutionary process from birth to death, is not applicable to literature

v  The Genetic view (gene-centered view of evolution) states that literary history is to be based on the study of sources, influences,  genres,  types, etc. This is the main stay of traditional scholarship also. The comparatists advocate this method of study of literature history. According to them a literary historian will investigate the origin and development of genres, types, etc., and will trace the influences. This, according to the comparatists, constitutes a legitimate study

Periodising Literary Works Based on Literary Norms and Conventions

v  The first step in this direction is to periodise literary works based on literary norms, standards and conventions. Ulrich   Weisstein welcomes such a move

v  The major difficulty will be that is not always possible to search for purely literary norms. We should be tolerant in accepting terms like ‘baroque’ or ‘surrealism’, etc. in so far as they have been dominant styles in architecture or painting of the period concerned

 

The Baroque is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1740s

Surrealism was a cultural movement which developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I and was largely influenced by Dada. The movement is best known for its visual artworks and writings and the juxtaposition of uncommon imagery

Weisstein on Terms in Periodisation

v   Weisstein discusses some of the important terms connected with periodisation like ‘epoch’, ‘period’ and ‘movement’, and points out the differences among them. He bases his discussion on the work of a German scholar, R.M.Meyer, who has made the study of periodization

v  Meyer is of the view that the term ‘period’ is important for literature as the term ‘concept’ is important for philosophy and ‘class’ is important for biological sciences

v  History is not simply a collection of various details. It is our knowledge of some of the notable details that took place at a certain time and place

v  The Greeks thought of history as important events that took place in the past. They were the people who generally introduced the term ‘epoch’; but for other classifications we had to wait till 19th century

Epoch

v  ‘Epoch’ marks the beginning of a relatively new literary development. It is the largest segment is periodisation, larger than the period and may be subdivided into smaller periods, for example, ‘Antiquity’, Middle ages, Modern age, Weisstein prefers to use the term ‘epoch’ instead of ‘period’ (used by Meyer) because the term epoch refers to a long period

Period

v   Period is a mode of classification. It overlaps with the use of the term ‘age’, which is often associated with great writers, like Shakespeare or Goethe. ‘Period’ is a changing dynamic concept in the sense that is constantly subject to scrutiny by the generation of readers

v  H.B.H. Teizing, a German scholar tries to solve this problem. Teizing also feels that the term ‘epoch’ can be used without any special emphasis to refer to a long period of time. Philologically the word ‘epoch’ indicates an event or time which has seen a new remarkable development. But, according to history, we cannot measure the length or find the end of an epoch

Difference  between ‘Epoch’ &  ‘Period’

v  The comparatists have to find out the differences between each epoch or period. They must also try to mark the line of demarcation between them. The present day scholars think that the literary history began with Homer and it extended up to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Byzantine culture

v  In between, the Middle Age begins. This creates problem for the researchers. In the same way, there are problems in assessing the period of the Renaissance as Italy, Spain and France talk about contradictory details about the beginning of Renaissance in their countries

v  Again, Weisstein feels that periods should not be attached to symbols that can be easily explained. It may not be useful to the comparatists. Just as a writer’s ideas are interpreted differently according to generation, each period is also interpreted differently. Hence it is difficult to understand the features of Neo-Classicism  or Romanticism

 

Dividing Periods According to Centuries

v  Generally in the university text books dealing with literary history, periods are divided according to centuries. We talk about 19th century literature’ or ‘16th century literature’. This, again ,is problematic. When we talk about 19th century, we do not think of a period from 1801 to 1899, but take that century to mean ‘Victorian Period’

v  Sometimes, literary  periods are known by the age of monarchs. For example, we refer to the Elizabethan period. But, at the same time, only some centuries are referred to like this. The Elizabethan age is known to all literary historians but nobody talks about the age of George V in literature. In this respect , the Elizabethan or Victorian periods have made a greater impact on the literary scene than others

‘Movement’ and ‘School’

v  A Movement is a body which normally consist of a nucleus of writers, equal in status. Sometimes it is strengthened by representative of the older generation. ‘Movement’  and ‘Generation’ are associated with each other. Romanticism and classicism are Movements

v  ‘Generation’, according to Weisstein, is the shortest segment in the periodisation of literary history. It may last between twenty-five and thirty years. Two or three generations may make up a period. Generations may also be called the ‘spearhead’ of a period because ‘Generation’ marks a band of like-minded innovators who succeed in displacing the art of the predecessor

v  Weisstein also differentiates between ‘Movement’ and ‘School’. A ‘School’ is always founded by a leader who is the authoritative voice. There will be disciples or followers, not only in the leader’s own generation but in successive generations as well

v  The Metaphysical  School (which explores and upholds the fusion of intellect and emotion) and the Pre-Raphaelite School are good examples. In the case of Metaphysical School, the founder is John Donne and great poets like Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan, Marvell and others are the disciples. The Pre-Raphaelite School was founded by Dante-Gabriel Rossetti

v  Weisstein advises the comparatist to make a thorough study of the periodisation. He also wants each period to be distinguished from other periods


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