Study Of English Romantic Criticism

For using the Preface to the Second Edition of the Lyrical Ballads of theWordsworth as a starting point, the history of English Romantic criticism only haslasted more than forty years. Nevertheless，nobody can imagine how brilliant anddazzling these forty years are. During this period of time, owing to the foundation ofthe uncountable unremitting explorations and researches of two generations of critics,they have put forward a series of original and creative theory of poetry. Consequently,they broke with the previous criticism of Neoclassicism. In the meantime, these criticsalso responded to the challenge of scientism and utilitarianism, and they figured out alarge number of important theoretical problems. Nothing else than the changes in thedomain of the concept of poetry bring British literary criticism into a new era, leavingprofound mark and influence on later generations of literary criticism.The problem that has been mentioned above plays a role as the schema and theoutline of the thesis, that is to say, by means of collating and interpreting someimportant theoretical problems, to explore the pros and cons of English Romanticcriticism theory. At the same time, tracing the ins and outs, it reviews its relationshipwith the Western Literary Theory in the20th century. Apart from the introduction andthe peroration, the full text is divided into five chapters, and I am going to expoundthese points as follows:The first chapter entitled "English Romantic Criticism overview". The paperpoints out that after the efforts of the two generations of poet and critic, EnglishRomantic criticism has constructed a series of unique and original poetic theory.Whereas, it does not handicap us from finding the theoretical origins, tracing thesources, which equals to the Ancient Greek and Roman heritage criticism, Britishtradition of literary criticism and the German literary theory. Meanwhile, we canalso distinguish four different theories inclinations of the criticism from the BritishRomantic, which indicates the Emotionalism Poetics, Platonism Poetics, OrganicView and Primitivism poetics. Certainly, in the critical practice, these four inclinationsare not entirely different, are intricately mingled.The second chapter entitled “About the poet’s talent and mission”. The thesis points out that English Romantic Criticism signifies a significant transition in thehistory of criticism, means that since then the concept of the poetry should beexplored from the perspective of the poet. Because they consider that poetry is a kindof the self-expression of the inner world of the poet. Therefore, to expound the poetrymust start from the talent, ability and the mission of the poet. If Wordsworth states thesix abilities to create poetry, in that way, Coleridge set the early stage creation of theShakespeare as the paragon to expound the original features of poetry genius. Butwhen he faced up to the challenge deriving from the Scientism and Utilitarianism,Shelley and Thomas Carlyle enhance the status and the reputation of the poet further.To some extent, they both had exaggerated the poet with the sacred mission.The third chapter entitled “Emotionalism and Impersonal theory”. In the field ofEnglish Romantic Criticism，Emotionalism became fashionable for a time. For thispurpose, the thesis expands careful and elaborative discrimination toward poetictheory of Wordsworth, John Stuart Mill and John Ruskin, referring to themultitudinous malpractice of the Emotionalism Poetic Theory. On the other hand,Coleridge, William Hazlitt and John Keats have elucidated a kind of obvious distinctpoetic theory as well, namely the Impersonal theory. In their opinion, a poet onlytranscend itself, beyond the individual character, he could gain the ability to describethings with the magnanimous spirit of boundless. However, Shakespeare is praisedhighly as a great example by them together. Although the Impersonal theory of thepoetry at that time were not be able to attract enough attention, in the20thcentury itwas be rejuvenated with vigor.The forth chapter entitled “Psychological problems in poetry writing”. Meansthat on account of the poetry is deemed to be the presentation and the reflection of thepoet’s inner world, as a result, exploring the psychological process and psychologicalfactors in the poetry creation plays the part, which precisely acts as a current andthe core topic in the range of English Romantic Criticism. In accordance with thisaccomplishment, it has promoted the vigorous development of the creativepsychology during this period of time. This chapter focuses on the theoretical analysisand evaluation of the theory of imagination that proposed by Coleridge and L.Hunt,the Inspiration of Shelley, the so-called “Unconscious Wisdom”, the research on thepsychological dynamic creation and the Analysis about the poet’s "negativecapability",which John Keats came up with before. It is through these exploration that greatly has deepen people’s understanding of the creative psychology, likewise,made a permanent impression among the popularity of20th century, with a profoundimpact on Western Literary Theory.The fifth chapter entitled “Analyzing about the social function of poetry”. Thethesis makes an evaluation that the discussion about the social function of poetryincreasingly aroused the concern of the public, due to the general prosperity ofscientism and the challenge of utilitarianism. Among the numerous and complicatedphenomena, the competition between the poetry and science and the relationshipbetween poetry and morality have become the focal issue, what’s more, nearly all theEnglish Romantic critics were involved in this discussion. Despite their respectivesolutions were different, they all unanimously defended the noble values and thehonor of poetry. All these mediations and considerations also profoundly affectedmany critics of a later period, just like Matthew Arnold, I.A.Richards and J.C.Ransom.Nowadays We are reviewing the discussion, not just for the sake of giving expressionthat memorizes the past or makes some apperceptions, but in order to obtain somebeneficial theoretical enlightenments.Hence it can be concluded that, in the history of Western literary criticism itoccupies a very crucial and vital position despite the history of English Romanticcriticism only has lasted more than forty years. It rapidly broke the monopoly of theNeoclassicism criticism, in addition, established a series of extraordinary and uniquepoetic theory. From then on, it marked a new era in the history of criticism.It is alsoprofoundly influenced modern American literary criticism meanwhile. Taken in thissense, there is no doubt that English Romantic Criticism signifies an extremely richand an inexhaustible theoretical source.