"A Glossary of Literary Terms" (concise review)

[OscarWildebeest]

M.H.Abrams (cornell university).
Stating in the preface: this book defines and discusses terms, critical theories, and points of view what are commonly used to classify, analize, interpret and write the history of works of literature.

At the end there is a complete index of terms, preceded by an index of authors, the former complemented inasmuch the terms are presented in alphabetical order. I found the explanation of each term (some consisting of a quater page, some more than one page) to be mostly satisfactorily comprehensive within the constraint of only 366 pages. Of course, specific individuals may have specific complaints regarding specific entries, like the one about the haiku.

Let us lookat Form and Structure: "Form is one of the most frequent terms in literary criticism, but also one of the most diverse in its meanings. It is often used merely to designate a genre or literary type ("the lyric form," "the short story form") or for patterns of meter, lines and rhymes ("the verse form," "the stanza form.". It is also, however- in a meaning descended from the Latin "forma," which was equivalent to the Greek "idea"- the term for a central critical concept. In this application, the form of a work is the principle that determines how a work is ordered and organized; critics, however, differ greatly in their analysis of this principle.....the concept of form varies according to a critic's particular assumptions and theoretical orientation...."

to follow: Regarding criticism.

[OscarWildebeest]

Mimetic criticism: "Views the literary work as an imitation, or reflection, or representation of the world and human life, and the primary criterion applied to a work is the "truth" of its representation to the subject matter that it represents, or should represent...."

Pragmatic criticism: "Views the work as something which is constructed in order to achieve certain effects on the audience (effects such as aesthetic pleasure, instruction, or kinds of emotion), and it tends to judge the value of the work according to its success in achieving that aim...."

Expressive criticism: "Treats a literary work primarily in relation to its author. It defines poetry as an expression, or overflo, or utterance of feelings, or as the product of the poet's imagination operating on his or her perceptions, thoughts and feelings; it tends to judge the work by its sincerity, or its adequacy to the poet's individual vision or state of mind...."