Classical
Literary Theory and Criticism/edited by A.P. Dani and V.M. Madge. Delhi,
Pencraft, 2001, 157 p., $18. ISBN 81-85753-45-8.Classical
Literary Theory and Criticism/edited by A.P. Dani and V.M. Madge. Delhi,
Pencraft, 2001, 157 p., $18. ISBN 81-85753-45-8.
Contents: Foreword. 1. The seminal path: classical literary theory and criticism/R.A. Malagi. 2. ‘Imitation’ as aesthetics of transformation/Mohit K. Ray. 3. Bharata and the western concept of Drama/V.Y. Kantak. 4. Oedipus and Hamartia/Vijaya Guttal. 5. Plotinus and Sri Aurobindo/A.P. Dani. 6. The structure of Horace’s Ars Poetica/Nutan Gosavi. 7. Longinus and the Sanskrit poetics/M.H. Mirasdar. 8. Thomas aquinas’ understanding of beauty/S.J. Cyril Desbruslais. 9.Vakrokti and the language of poetry/R.S. Pathak. 10. The counter-ideological tendency in western theory/Murray Krieger. 11. The survival of theory/Raymond Tallis. 12. Poetic theories of Plato and Aristotle: some implications for the contemporary critical theory/V.M. Madge.
"The essays included in this anthology attempt a revaluation of the classical literary theorists and their criticism, as well as an assessment of their pivotal significance in countering and containing the indiscriminate formulations and advances of contemporary critical theory. Drawing upon the concepts and theorizations of a host of critics, for instance Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Plotinus, Thomas Acquinas and several of their Indian counterparts, these studies uphold the centrality of literary texts, demystify some of the demigods of contemporary critical theory, checkmate the excessively ideology-oriented critical discourses, and reaffirm the persistent rationale of going back to the basics in the discipline. The volume vindicates the need for a normative perspective in critical enquiry, increasingly threatened by warring isms and ideologies of discordant and disaffecting intellectuals." (jacket)