On George Bligh 's Consciousness Criticism

"Geneva School" is the first literary critical school which fully and directly applied the concepts and methods of phenomenology to the field of literary criticism. They did not have a unified program and solemn consistent theoretical system, but they all viewed criticism as "literature of literature, consciousness of consciousness." Among them, Georges poulet, as a core figure in this school, raised a critical way of "criticism of consciousness".Poulet’s concepts of criticism base on learning from the previous thinkers. From phenomenology he draws the concept of intentionality, pure awareness; From Bergson, he draws intuition, prolonging, etc.; From Romanticism he draws the concept of subjectivity; From Dilthey, he draws the view of experience.Thus Poulet views text as the author’s intent resultant which contains the author’s consciousness. Through the reading of the text, the opposition between Subject and Object is broken, and the reader is to achieve self let out, understanding and experience of the author’s consciousness, then reaching the identity and contingency with it. Till then, reader’s consciousness awakes. But reading is still not criticism. Only the identical criticism way from Subject to Subject via the Object is Poulet’s ideal way, in which reader’s consciousness will be able to pursue the author’s consciousness through the consciousness in the text. It can be said that above all and in nature, all criticism is criticism of consciousness, in which one of the most important thing is to pursue and grasp of the "Cotigo"."Cotigo" is the original starting point, a way of feeling and thinking, which can be found only from the work internally. It’s proposed for the demands of an order:because of’Cotigo", the author can take charge of their task successfully, through repeatedly returning to the starting point; after seizing "Cotigo", critics will be able to follow this clue to explore the author’s consciousness. Then, all will not look cluttered. Having found a author’s "Cotigo", the critic’s task is completed by half.There is a kind of "disinterestedness" in Poulet’s criticism. He does not relate to other purposes. All is for the manifestation of the criticized author’s consciousness. For him, consciousness only, and nothing more.In addition, Georges Poulet was, after all, not a philosopher, his elaboration ways of criticism were not rigorously theoretical, and he blurred the boundaries of philosophical texts and literary texts, which reduced the significance of the existence of literature and literary criticism. All those above abated its’sustained attraction; but he expanded critical thinking, confirmed the position of Subject in criticism, that’s a significant contribution.