Literary Theory and Criticism: From the Metaphysics of Presence to Its Discontents Literary theory and criticism occupies a peculiar yet crucial position within the domain of literary studies. It is not literature per se—it does not tell stories, compose poems, or dramatize human experience in the imaginative mode. Rather, it is a meta-genre, a form […]
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Modernism in English literature is often described as a radical aesthetic rupture—a rebellion against Victorian confidence, linear narratives, stable meanings, and inherited forms. While this description is not incorrect, it remains incomplete. At a deeper level, modernism can be understood as a profound spiritual and epistemological inquiry: an attempt to investigate whether the religious traditions’
Modernism: A Spiritual Inquiry after the Loss of God Read More »
Postmodernism is often misunderstood as an intellectual posture of relativism, frivolity, or even cynicism—an attitude summed up in the careless claim that “anything goes.” Such readings miss its deeper philosophical seriousness. Postmodernism does not arise from hostility toward truth but from a profound realization: truth cannot be reduced to a thing, an object, a fixed
Postmodernism and the Turn Toward No-Thingness Read More »
Postmodernism is often misunderstood as an intellectual posture of relativism, frivolity, or even cynicism—an attitude summed up in the careless claim that “anything goes.” Such readings miss its deeper philosophical seriousness. Postmodernism does not arise from hostility toward truth but from a profound realization: truth cannot be reduced to a thing, an object, a fixed
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IntroductionThe debate over the nature and significance of poetry has occupied philosophers and writers since antiquity. At its core lies a tension between reason and inspiration, imitation and intuition, direct knowledge and gradual understanding. Plato and Aristotle, teacher and student, offered profoundly different orientations toward poetry, shaping subsequent literary traditions and influencing Western thought from
Plato, Aristotle, and the Divergent Philosophies of Poetry Read More »
IntroductionThe evolution of Western literature reflects a profound shift in how humans understand themselves, society, and the cosmos. From the Renaissance to the postmodern era, writers and thinkers have grappled with the tension between permanence and flux, sacred authority and secular inquiry. Modernism and postmodernism, two defining literary movements, represent contrasting responses to this tension.
From Modernism to Postmodernism: The Shifting Landscape of Literary Consciousness Read More »
Introduction Michel Foucault’s work is often summarised through a single keyword: power. From madness to medicine, from prisons to sexuality, Foucault relentlessly traced the subtle, pervasive, and productive operations of power in modern societies. Yet to read Foucault in isolation is to miss a deeper philosophical lineage that animates his thought. Foucault is not merely
Introduction Few debates in twentieth-century literary theory have been as transformative—and as misunderstood—as the shift from structuralism to poststructuralism. Often presented as a neat chronological progression or a simple rejection, this transition is better understood as a profound philosophical reorientation. Structuralism emerged not merely as a method of textual analysis but as a response to
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Introduction: Beyond Period Labels Neoclassicism and Romanticism are typically taught as successive literary movements associated with specific periods in the history of English literature. Neoclassicism is associated with the late 17th and 18th centuries, while Romanticism dominates the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Yet such a chronological understanding, though convenient, is ultimately insufficient. These
Neoclassicism vs Romanticism: Mind and Heart in Literary History Read More »