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The present thesis focuses on the critical dialogues on the literary canon developed between 1970 and 2000 in the United States as a crucial juncture for the consolidation of the notion of canon as a scholarly subject matter within the field of literary studies. By taking stock of the abundance of scholarly contributions on the literary canon produced at this time, this thesis pursues two aims: first, it initiates a process of systematisation of the scholarly material on the canon produced during the last thirty years of the twentieth century; second, it focuses on a selection of particularly influential works that have furthered the understanding of specific aspects of the notion of canon. Two introductory chapters outline respectively the historical and the theoretical background of this research. Chapter One explores the historical framework within which the canon started to receive increasing critical attention inside and outside U.S. academia. In particular, it observes how the historical and cultural phenomenon known as the Culture Wars came to bear upon the way in which the notion of canon was perceived and treated by critics and scholars. Early and later examples of canonical criticism are juxtaposed so as to argue that the absorption of debates about the definition of national cultural heritage within U.S. academia influenced the terms in which the canon was being discussed, privileging oppositional rhetorical strategies over the more moderate tones of early theoretical approaches. Chapter Two draws on Jan Gorak’s work in The Making of The Modern Canon: Genesis and Crisis of a Literary Idea (1991) to explore the history of the concept of canon and of its associations with the diverging attitudes adopted by critics in relation to the canon in the period in exam. The second part of this thesis constitutes of three case studies that illustrate the significance for our understanding of the concepts of canon, canonicity and canon formation, of three texts published in the 1990s by Harold Bloom, John Guillory and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Each chapter observes how these studies contributed to clarify the relationship between the idea of canon and that of tradition, between canon and ideology and, finally, between the canon and the anthology, respectively. Chapter Three locates Bloom’s The Western Canon: The Books and Schools of Ages (1994) in relation to his earlier theory of the anxiety of influence and argues that Bloom’s account of canon formation relies on his definition of tradition as the agonistic struggle between poets and their predecessors. Chapter Four is a close reading of John Guillory’s Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation (1993) and explores the political ideology underlying its selective use of the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Antonio Gramsci and T.S.Eliot. Finally, Chapter Five engages with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s attempt to establish a canon of African American Literature through his role as editor of the Norton Anthology of African American Literature (1996).

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 239-242).

Made available in DSpace on 2015-01-26T13:21:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-07-08Bitstream added on 2015-01-26T13:30:23Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000804512.pdf: 1142881 bytes, checksum: 98d8f4d4d831108d36c638a82c9f6a23 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A presente tese foi escrita orientada por três objetivos principais, quais sejam: investigar a natureza da Crítica e da Teoria Literária, expondo os seus estatutos, suas limitações e pretensões; dentro desse cenário, realizar o recenseamento de toda a produção crítica e teórica do professor Harold Bloom (1930), da Universidade de Yale – figura eminente e controversa dos Estudos Literários hoje – por meio da exposição, levantamento da fortuna crítica e comentário referente a cada uma das obras. A análise dos vinte e um livros apresentados aponta três fases predominantes na carreira do crítico norte-americano: uma fase em que predominam os estudos sobre o Romatismo inglês, a fase do desenvolvimento da teoria da angústia da influência e a fase da defesa do cânone literário fora das Universidades; por fim, o terceiro objetivo é analisar uma obra de Crítica Literária de cada uma das fases evidenciadas – a saber, The Visionary Company (1961), Poesia e Repressão (1976) e Como e por que ler (2000), respectivamente – de modo a identificar o fundamento da crítica agonística de Harold Bloom e seus rivais. Ao fim, será possível verificar que as performances críticas de Harold Bloom sempre se oferecem como alternativas às maiores correntes críticas que predominam ou já predominaram nos Estudos Literários norte-americanos: o New Criticism, a Desconstrução e os Estudos Culturais / The present Doctoral Dissertation was written guided by three main aims, which are: to investigate the nature, statutes, limitations of and claims made by Literary Criticism and Theory; that being done, to carry out a survey of all the critical and theoretical publications by professor Harold Bloom (1930), from Yale University – eminent and controversial figure of Literary Studies nowadays – by means of expounding, collecting the wealth of critical acclaim of, and commenting on every work. The analysis of the twenty one books presented points out three predominant phases in the critic´s career: a phase in which studies of English Romanticism prevail, the phase of the development of the anxiety of influence theory, and the phase of the literary canon defense outside the Universities; at last, the third aim is to analyze one work of Criticism by each one of the phases pointed out – namely The Visionary Company (1961), Poetry and Repression (1976) and How to Read and Why (2000), respectively – in order to identify the foundations of Harold Bloom´s agonistic criticism and its rivals. By the end, it will be possible to verify that Harold Bloom´s critical performances always offered themselves as alternatives to major Literary Criticism trends that prevail or had prevailed in American Literary Studies: New Criticism, Deconstruction and Cultural Studies

The thesis examines the nature of political reform and the role of culture in the liberal utopia envisaged by Richard Rorty in Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Rorty's overall project is outlined, and situated within the anti-foundationalist critique that has been the hallmark of his recent career. The perilous position of nonintellectuals within the otherwise-acceptable utopia is detailed. Harold Bloom's conception of the strong poet is then examined and compared to the use Rorty makes of Bloom; I conclude that the faults of the liberal utopia lie primarily in establishing the strong poet as that culture's hero. I turn to Rorty's reading of Sigmund Freud, a reading which consistently inverts Freud's insights in order to make Freud fit into Rorty's plan. Finally, I re-examine Freud and suggest ways in which he can be used to correct the faults of the liberal utopia.

Zugl.: Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss.

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This dissertation argues for a reappraisal of Beethoven’s middle period using the chamber music written between 1806 and 1815 to advance a new paradigm of “middleness.” I argue that Beethoven’s creative output was profoundly influenced by the circumstances of life in Vienna 1806-15. Napoleon’s eastward-advancing armies brought about the end of the Holy Roman Empire and undertook multiple bombardments of the city of Vienna itself, profoundly disrupting both the established social order and daily life. Unlike other scholarship that has made similar claims of influence on Beethoven’s oeuvre, this project does not seek to ascribe programmatic readings or political aspirations to Beethoven’s music, but rather to suggest that the effects of these events were echoed in the composer’s approach to manipulating musical time and conveying musical subjectivity. The stylistic developments that occurred in Beethoven’s music in this period are reflective of currents of upheaval and historical rupture that have been discussed in historiographic and critical literature on early nineteenth century Europe by such scholars as Reinhart Koselleck, Lynn Hunt, and Peter Fritzsche. These developments in Beethoven’s style are seen most clearly in his chamber music, a compositional venue notable both for its experimental potential as well as timbral and textural richness. To support formal and topical analyses of these works, I develop and advance a new paradigm for understanding “middleness.” Using tools from literary criticism, including work by Harold Bloom and Julia Kristeva, I conceive a framework for middleness that posits it as a fundamentally disruptive impulse. This paradigm provides artistic “middleness” with a stature comparable to oft-discussed “lateness” and opens pathways for potential future study. I furthermore theorize that, if middleness is disruptive, the nature of an artist’s disruptive middle style is heavily dependent on the context in which it occurs. Beethoven’s middle style therefore reflects the context of temporal dislocation and social change in which it occurs. Taking this into account, I consider anew questions of style in Beethoven’s middle period, which runs roughly concurrently with the period of Napoleonic upheaval in Vienna. Rather than relying on the idea of the “heroic” style, which is the most commonly cited archetype for Beethoven’s middle-period music, I establish a more capacious framework that allows for understanding even the non-heroic middle period works as part of a larger artistic current. In these works, we see a profusion of genres and topics related to improvisation, as well as new approaches to employing introductions and codas in sonata form movements. Movements from the String Quartet Op. 59 no. 3, the Piano Trio Op. 70 no. 2, the String Quartet Op. 74 “Harp”, the Violin Sonata Op. 96, the Piano Trio Op. 97 “Archduke,” and the Cello Sonata Op. 102 no. 1 are used as examples of Beethoven’s particular disruptive middle style.

Este trabalho procura compreender a relação entre as culturas literárias do Novo Mundo e a tradição ocidental em termos de idiomas, espaços geográficos, unidades políticas, regiões culturais e centros de população. A partir dessa perspectiva, são analisadas as abordagens históricas do australiano Henry Green, do estadunidense Harold Bloom, do brasileiro Antonio Candido e do argentino Jorge Luis Borges em relação aos seus respectivos contextos intelectuais: Sydney, Nova York, São Paulo e Buenos Aires. Ao fim, se propõe um projeto para elaborar uma história da literatura no Novo Mundo a partir da comparação das perspectivas de várias regiões dos Novos Mundos latino e anglófono. / This study aims to comprehend the relationship between the literary cultures of the New World and the Western tradition in terms of languages, geographical spaces, political units, cultural regions and population centres. On the basis of this perspective, it compares the historical approaches of the Australian Henry Green, the US American Harold Bloom, the Brazilian Antonio Candido and the Argentinean Jorge Luis Borges in relation to their respective intellectual contexts: Sydney, Nova York, São Paulo and Buenos Aires. Finally, it proposes the elaboration of a history of literature in the New World on the basis of the comparison of perspectives from different regions of the Latin and Anglophone New World.