Evans - Perspectives on World War I poetry

Perspectives on World War I Poetry

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CONTENTS

This book

is intended mainly for students and general readers seeking an introduction to various ways of looking at literature, especially the poetry of World War I;

tries to give roughly equal weight to each of the literary theories discussed;

tries to explain those theories in language that is clear and accessible;

tries especially to show how each theory can be used and applied in practical ways to make sense of individual works of literature;

is designed so that individual sections can be read in isolation but also so that each section builds on the one before it, with the most general discussions placed at the beginning of the book;

is organized by dates of the poets births, with the earlier poets preceding the later ones;

includes poets from a range of English-speaking countries, including not only the United Kingdom but also the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and others;

includes a large proportion of women poets as well as gay poets and poets of color.

I especially wish to thank David Avital of Bloomsbury Press for his enthusiastic support of this book and for his guidance in its preparation. I am also grateful to the various anonymous reviewers who endorsed the book and made very helpful suggestions about how to make it better.

My debts to my former teachers are too numerous and profound to list, but I would especially like to thank Alvin Kernan for his early support and encouragement and Robert L. Gale for his even earlier kindness. My debts to Robert and Marina Whitman are beyond measure.

My colleagues deserve many thanks, especially Eric Sterling and Alan Gribben. Over three decades I have had the pleasure to teach hundreds of students, especially in my Literary Criticism class, who have stimulated and challenged my own thinking. Christina M. Garner, who compiled , is one of the very best of these.

My deepest affection and thanks go, once more, to my wife, Ruth, who has given me more joy, laughter, and love than anyone could imagine. And I would be remiss if I did not thank three goofy dogs (Taylor, Martha, and Rafe) who make us smile and laugh many times every single day.

My debt to M. H. Abrams will be everywhere apparent in this text, and I hope I have adequately conveyed my admiration and respect for one of the most influential of modern literary theorists, who recently celebrated his hundredth birthday and is still going strong.

Although literary theory is often considered highly abstract and intellectual and therefore remote from the concerns of ordinary people, any reader of a literary text inevitably uses a literary theory of some sort. Any reader, that is, inevitably makes assumptions about why and how a text should be interpreted, understood, or appreciated. Responding to a text inevitably involves applying these assumptions, whether or not we are consciously aware of doing so. One goal of literary theorists, then, is simply to encourage us to be more conscious of the assumptions we make and use when we read.

By being more conscious of these assumptions, we can not only use them more insightfully but can also consider their strengths and weaknesses, their relative advantages and disadvantages. We can consider whether and in what ways they seem valid; we can make sure that we better understand their larger implications; we can determine whether we are applying them consistently; and we can help ensure that the theory we use is a theory we have freely chosen rather than one we have merely taken for granted simply because it is practiced by others.

Studying literary theory, then, can not only introduce us to different ways of reading texts but can also encourage a fuller development of our minds by prompting us not only to think for ourselves but to make sure that we can explain why we have chosen to think and read as we do.

Studying literary theory, however, has become increasingly difficult as the number of such theories has itself increased, especially during the past century. So many theories now exist, and so many often seem so difficult to grasp, that it is little wonder that so many ordinary readers feel intimidated (or even repelled). Trying to make sense of a given theory, and then trying to determine how that theory can be compared and contrasted with others, are genuinely daunting tasks. Different theorists seem not only to make fundamentally different assumptions but also, frequently, to speak fundamentally different languageslanguages that often seem arcane and highly abstract. It is hardly surprising, then, that many readers, when confronted with the opportunity or need to expose themselves to theory, adopt the response of Melvilles Bartleby and would simply prefer not to.

The Abrams scheme

Understanding the assumptions that lie within and beneath various literary theories becomes much easier when we heed the advice of M. H. Abrams, himself a highly influential theorist. Abrams suggested a scheme that is both firm enough and flexible enough to make sense of just about any theory one can imagine (see his famous book The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953], pp. 329). By applying this schematic approach to different theories, we can better understand both how they are similar and how they differ, and because the Abrams scheme encourages a systematic approach to various theories, it also makes it much easier to remember both their common and their distinctive features. Any schematic approach, of course, inevitably involves some simplification; in the final analysis, the best way to understand a particular theorists ideas will be to examine them with individual care and attention. The Abrams scheme, however, provides a useful way to begin the study of literary theory and to organize both the tactics and the results of our thinking.

Briefly, Abrams argues that any literary theory that attempts to be complete will inevitably make certain fundamental assumptions about several basic aspects of literature. These aspects can be called the writer, the text, the audience, and reality. To these four categories we can add a fifth: the critic. Any theory of literature, in other words, will tend to make assumptions about the role of the writer, the features of the text, the traits of the audience, the nature of reality, and the functions of the critic. Moreover, assumptions in one category will almost inevitably affect, or be consistent with, assumptions in another. Take an obvious example: if a theorist assumes that reality is fundamentally structured by inherent or imposed differences between the sexes, that assumption will in turn affect how the theorist imagines the role of the writer (male, female, sexist, liberationist, free, oppressed, etc.), the features of the text (progressive, conservative, experimental, traditional, flexible, rigid, etc.), the traits of the audience (men, women, repressed, tolerant, conservative, liberal, etc.), and the functions of the critic (a supporter of liberation; an advocate for previously ignored writers; a student of male and female habits of thinking and writing; etc.).