William Empson and the Philosophy of Literary Criticism [Hardcover]

Following the publication of Seven Types of Ambiguity in 1930 William Empson was quickly recognised as a critic of great originality and unique creative gifts and he has inspired a whole new method and style of approach in literary criticism. But this is the first full-length study of his work and it is an important part of Dr Norris's purpose to account for the gulf that has emerged between Empson's viewpoint and the development of his ideas by others, especially the American New Critics, and for the consequent failure of Empson's later books to generate the informed discussion they demand and deserve. Here particular attention is given to his critical summa, The Structure of Complex Words. To understand Empson's work as a consistent whole, Dr Norris argues, one must relate it to his philosophy of humanistic rationalism. This is to give a new perspective not only to his practical criticism but also to his differences with Eliot and Leavis and to his anti-Christian polemic.

Introduction
1 Empson and Present-Day Criticism: a Chapter of Misunderstandings
Poet and critic: a change of heart?
The rational motive: Empson and the literature of conflict
2 Beyond Formalism': Pastoral and the Subjective Correlative'
History and form in Pastoral: the timeless prison' of Symbolism
3 Complex Words and the Grammar of Motives
Dramatic character' and the commonsense ethic
4 Semantics and Historical Method: the Phenomenology of Meaning
Structures and meaning: the limits explanation
Ordinary language and semantic history
Complex Words and the renaissance' view of man
5 Other Minds': the Morality of Knowledge
Milton's God and the question of intention'
Milton, Pastoral and the levels of consciousness
Poetry and narrative: the plot' dimension
The rational bias: some limiting cases in Empson's criticism
6 Literary Values' and Modern Humanism: Empson's Work in Perspective
Alternative wisdoms: Empson between two cultulc3