In search of literary theory,

by M.H. Abrams

274 pages, Hardcover

First published November 23, 1972

About the author

Meyer Howard Abrams is an American literary critic, known for works on Romanticism, in particular his book The Mirror and the Lamp. In a powerful contrast, Abrams shows that until the Romantics, literature was usually understood as a mirror, reflecting the real world, in some kind of mimesis; but for the Romantics, writing was more like a lamp: the light of the writer's inner soul spilled out to illuminate the world. Under Abrams' editorship, the Norton Anthology of English Literature became the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in literary canon formation.

Abrams was born in a Jewish family in Long Branch, New Jersey. The son of a house painter and the first in his family to go to college, he entered Harvard University as an undergraduate in 1930. He went into English because, he says, "there weren't jobs in any other profession, so I thought I might as well enjoy starving, instead of starving while doing something I didn't enjoy." After earning his baccalaureate in 1934, Abrams won a Henry fellowship to the University of Cambridge, where his tutor was I.A. Richards. He returned to Harvard for graduate school in 1935 and received his Masters' degree in 1937 and his PhD in 1940. During World War II, he served at the Psycho-Acoustics Laboratory at Harvard. He describes his work as solving the problem of voice communications in a noisy military environment by establishing military codes that are highly audible and inventing selection tests for personnel who had a superior ability to recognize sound in a noisy background. In 1945 Abrams became a professor at Cornell University. As of March 4th, 2008, he was Class of 1916 Professor of English Emeritus there.

Reviews

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some great essays here. MH Abrams takes on those who think literary theory to be a waste of time, philosophically. ED Hirsch, charming as ever, disputes those who would ignore the intrinsic value of the humanities but subordinating to the merely instrumental. Northrop Frye, in a hundred-page article, develops the mythocentric ideas for which he is well known. Joff Hartman argues on the meaning of literary history, wheres de Man argues from Nietzsche on literary modernity. Editor Bloomfield files a short essay that develops the per cognitionem/per connaturalitatem distinction from Aquinas for the humanities.

Good stuff, probably should be considered basic.

[Enci · Rating 5 out of 5]

me lo he vuelto a leer le di 2 estrellas en su momento pero es TAN bueno,,,, no supe valorarlo pq no era lo que iba buscando en ese momento