A Study Of Lionel Trilling’s Thought And Methods In Teaching Classic Literature

Lionel Trilling(1905-1975)is an outstanding American critic,educator and writer of the twentieth century.He is also a core figure of New York intellectuals.Inheriting from and seeking development of Matthew Arnold’s theory "literature is the criticism of human life," Trilling’s criticism is more inclined to be a kind of cultural criticism.Trilling pays more attention to the important functions of literature rather than the formalistic analysis of the text that ignores the social or historical environment,which is the characteristic of the New Criticism.From Trilling’s point of view,social,moral and cultural elements should be the main content of literary interpretation;literature should have certain "weight" which evokes the human beings,and describes human desire limited by social disciplines.He hopes that literature can help us reflect on our imperfect selves,on the poverty of our imaginations—and,by so reflecting,move in the direction of perfectionAs a well-known professor of literature at Columbia University,Trilling’s theories of cultural criticism had exerted a strong influence on his teaching thought of classic literature during his teaching career of more than forty years.Trilling believes that in order to help students develop their own personalities,teachers should combine literature with the deeper meanings of morality,culture and society and thus establish a substantial relationship between literary works and the real world,rather than just reading classic works as formalistic classic works.Also,as a public intellectual,Trilling believes that literary education should not be limited to academies.Through writing for a wilder public,Trilling makes it easy for the public to understand classic literary works and the cultural phenomena behind them.Trilling’s writings have far-reaching effects on today’s critics.Through the study of Lionel Trilling’s thought and methods in teaching classic literature,this thesis tries to point out the importance of Trilling’s thought and,at the same time,to give some enlightenment and to offer some useful suggestions on literary education in Chinese universities as well as on the popularization of classic literature to the whole society.