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Nesta aula de Teoria da Literatura, discutimos o conceito de literatura a partir das reflexões de Terry Eagleton e Antoine Compagnon, problematizando suas definições e limites. Em diálogo com Paul H. Fry, abordamos também o caráter cético da teoria literária e sua constante revisão de conceitos.
Links úteis:
https://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-300/lecture-1
https://grad.letras.ufmg.br/arquivos/monitoria/Capitulo%203%20-%20O%20que%20e%20literatura%20EAGLETON%20T.pdf
https://share.google/K3eFpfiF3NWgYPbQD
https://www.academia.org.br/noticias/poeta-ou-poetisa
Links úteis:
https://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-300/lecture-1
https://grad.letras.ufmg.br/arquivos/monitoria/Capitulo%203%20-%20O%20que%20e%20literatura%20EAGLETON%20T.pdf
https://share.google/K3eFpfiF3NWgYPbQD
https://www.academia.org.br/noticias/poeta-ou-poetisa
Categoria
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AprendizadoTranscrição
00:05The ontological status of literary theory.
00:08The name is ugly, and it seems like I deliberately chose it to scare you.
00:12But the expression is simpler than it seems.
00:15The problem with literature is that it's not easy.
00:19When we talk about ontological status, we are talking about the mode of existence of something.
00:24In other words, what is it that we are studying, how does it exist, how do we recognize this object?
00:30It's like an episode of Globo Repórter.
00:33Every field of knowledge, at some point, needs to confront these issues.
00:36You know, right?
00:37Biology needs to define what it means by life.
00:39Physics needs to discuss what constitutes matter, energy, and time.
00:44And history needs to reflect on what constitutes a historical fact.
00:48Literary theory needs to ask what literature is.
00:52We won't be able to offer a definitive answer.
00:55But our goal, then, is to understand how different thinkers have formulated this question.
01:02And what paths did they find to try to answer that question?
01:07And in today's class we're going to do a concise comparison between some important contributions to this discussion.
01:12Professor Paulette Frye will be here, with her 2009 literary theory course, which is available on the website of
01:18Yale.
01:19Also the British Terry Eagleton, who is the author of literary theory in an introduction, which is a classic of
01:2583.
01:26And also Professor Antoine Compagnon, a Frenchman, with The Demon of Theory, Literature and Common Sense, which is from '98.
01:34There is more than just an ocean between these authors.
01:38They also stem from quite distinct concerns.
01:41Frye starts from modern skepticism and the crises of consciousness and knowledge that characterize contemporary theory.
01:48Eagleton, from the notion of ideology, showing how our value judgments and our cultural definitions
01:54They are linked to power structures and historical forms of legitimation.
01:58Compagnon and others adopt a more essayistic, metacritical stance, revisiting the major tensions in literary theory.
02:05and they question the consensuses that we often take for granted.
02:10And that's why it's that demon mentioned in the title.
02:22Traditionally, when we begin courses in theory, criticism, and specific disciplines,
02:30We begin by discussing the concept of the object being studied.
02:34In our case, literature.
02:39An introduction, the word introduction, not the word itself, but an introductory course,
02:46Professor Paul H. Frye explains that it is valuable not only for those who wish to gain knowledge,
02:53but also to gain an additional perspective on the topic,
02:57from its historical dimension and from the premises that underlie our understanding of what theory is.
03:03He speaks,
03:32And so, throughout this introductory lesson,
03:34his productive education,
03:36He emphasizes the skeptical nature of the theory.
03:40And so, keep in mind the skeptical nature of the theory.
03:43That's the basis of his lecture.
03:47This skepticism arises from modernity, not from modernism.
03:51which was a phenomenon of the early 20th century,
03:54but the historical and cultural period derived from the generation of René Descartes,
03:59William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes.
04:02Shakespeare, I want you to think about Hamlet,
04:06It creates tension in the field between lucidity and madness.
04:10Cervantes, remember Don Quixote,
04:13It questions our knowledge about ourselves and our experiences.
04:17based on the paranoias and delusions of its central character.
04:20In the philosophical field, Descartes, aligned with concerns about the instability of reason and identity,
04:28As already speculated upon in the literature, it raises a series of questions regarding knowledge.
04:33such as,
04:34How do we know anything?
04:37And also questions about your mental health, right?
04:41Am I crazy?
04:42What do I know? How do I know?
04:45The Cartesian revolution takes hold with the distancing between the mind and sensible reality.
04:54or even the observing subject and the observed object.
04:57"I think, therefore I am" can be understood as "I think, and therefore I exist."
05:03They can be understood in order to exist as well.
05:07The point is, this scientific objectivity, right?
05:12With an appropriate distance between the observer and the observed,
05:16It begins to gradually unravel starting with Immanuel Kant.
05:20who is not part of the group of skeptics, but proposed something that is equally noteworthy.
05:26We know things as they appear to be, not as they are.
05:32And this problem intensifies with Hegel, who speaks of an unhappy consciousness.
05:38marked by a feeling of detachment and uncertainty in relation to the world.
05:41What is Professor Paulette Frye trying to explain?
05:45It is that at this moment in the history of thought,
05:49We don't just start doubting what we know,
05:52but also from the very foundations of consciousness.
05:54This ultimately paves the way for skepticism, which characterizes the theory.
06:00Then, folks, further on, Professor Frye brings up Marx, Nietzsche, and also Freud.
06:07to show that consciousness is not autonomous, but shaped by external forces.
06:12In Marx's case, ideology; in Nietzsche's case, language.
06:17And in Freud's case, the unconscious.
06:20And then he explains to us that consciousness is doubly unstable.
06:23She doesn't fully understand the world, nor herself.
06:28I'll leave the link to Professor Frye's first lecture available for you.
06:33And you can watch or read the transcript at your leisure.
06:36to fully understand his line of argument.
06:39The class is really very good, it's excellent.
06:43I needed to contextualize what he means by skepticism.
06:47to discuss, then, the concept of theory and its modes of existence.
06:52According to Professor Frye, as we have just discussed,
06:56Skepticism is a way of thinking.
06:59which questions the foundations of knowledge and consciousness.
07:03He brings up these big names to explain that skepticism arises from modernity.
07:08and it intensifies when we begin to distrust not only what we know,
07:13but also the conditions that make it possible to know.
07:17All of this comes up after his class, right?
07:21But what structures your thinking?
07:24and I thought it important to begin,
07:27to begin, but I thought it important to begin last,
07:33That's the part about skepticism, right?
07:35So, he says that skepticism calls things into question, right?
07:42The foundations of our knowledge of consciousness,
07:45and also the conditions of knowing,
07:47And then he brings that into theory.
07:49And then we can, finally, from that point on,
07:52since the theory considers what literature is,
07:57They think the theory will be skeptical.
08:00She will question the concepts and ways of knowing what literature is.
08:10So, ignoring the etymology of the word theory,
08:13Professor Frye explains to us that the complexity involved
08:16The key to understanding theory lies in the fact that,
08:20Traditionally, it means,
08:22one, practice,
08:25Practical, right?
08:26And other times, right?
08:27So, the number two also means
08:29What comes before practice and what underlies it.
08:33And that's the meaning, right?
08:35This refers to what comes before the practice and what underlies it.
08:38where he stops,
08:40and points out that there is a difference
08:42between applied theory and practice.
08:45The applied theory, he says, is the methodology.
08:48but it's worth noting that not all theory
08:53It has immediate application.
08:55A theory is often a hypothesis about something.
08:58a speculative venture,
09:01an abstraction that is not easy to apply.
09:04Still, at this level of abstraction,
09:07Theory ultimately serves the application.
09:09And there are many courses like this one, right?
09:11They're presenting a text that will be read from the perspective of the theory in focus, right?
09:15When I say "this," I'm referring to our discipline, right?
09:18We must be vigilant, however,
09:20for the fact that reading does not exhaust
09:23the meaning of a text.
09:24And that's one of the things that theory teaches us.
09:27Like philosophy, theory asks fundamental questions.
09:31It aims for totals and often creates systems.
09:34But, unlike philosophy,
09:37The theory embodies a certain degree of skepticism.
09:40She is suspicious, she doubts the foundations of our thoughts and opinions.
09:45This, ours, is a discipline of literary theory.
09:48And like others, she seeks to define her object.
09:52What is literature?
09:53How do we know if a particular text is literature?
09:56How can we define literature?
09:59Many of Professor Frye's sessions,
10:01just like our classes,
10:03They dedicate themselves precisely to investigating what literature is.
10:06and to offer answers.
10:08So, let's see what he says in his lecture, shall we?
10:12Based on, offer answers about what literature is,
10:16based on form, circularity, symmetry, economy of form,
10:21lack of economy of form and repetition.
10:24There are definitions based on psychological complexity,
10:28psychological balance, psychological harmony,
10:31sometimes causing psychological imbalance and disharmony.
10:35And there are also definitions that insist
10:39that, in some way, there is an epistemological difference.
10:43between literature and other forms of expression.
10:45While most expressions
10:47intends to say something true
10:49about the real state of things in the world,
10:51Literary expression does not have that obligation.
10:55The argument should be understood as fiction.
10:58inventing instead of referring to something.
11:02All these definitions of literature,
11:04They find exceptions and are unable to cope.
11:07completely dependent on its subject.
11:09Of course, this creates the feeling that,
11:11if we can't define it,
11:12Literature is nothing.
11:15However, we can agree that it is literature.
11:17everything that a community decides to treat
11:21as literature.
11:22This definition may sound unsatisfactory and insecure.
11:27But it offers a very interesting way out.
11:30To study how different people understand literature.
11:33As we can see, a definition is possible.
11:41And that's precisely where Terry Eagleton comes in.
11:45This literary critic starts from the same question,
11:49What is literature?
11:50To show that what we call literature
11:53It's not a fixed category.
11:55but something that depends on values,
11:57historical contexts and forms of reading.
11:59While Fry structures his lesson around the concept of skepticism,
12:04Eagleton bases his exposition on the concept of ideology.
12:08which for him are the structure,
12:11largely hidden,
12:13of values that guide and support
12:15our factual statements.
12:19It is part of what is understood by ideology.
12:22By ideology, I generally mean the ways in which what we say and believe is shaped.
12:28It connects with the structure and power relations of the society in which we live.
12:32I don't understand ideology simply as deeply ingrained beliefs.
12:37These are often unconscious traits that people possess.
12:39I am referring more specifically to those ways of feeling, valuing, perceiving and believing.
12:45that maintains some kind of relationship with the maintenance and reproduction of social power.
12:52The concept of literature, as we see, does not depend on textual factors.
12:57based solely on textual factors.
12:59It is intertwined with broader prejudices and beliefs.
13:11So, Antônio Companhão agrees with Eagleton.
13:14For him, the definition of a term like literature
13:17It will offer nothing more than the sum of the circumstances.
13:21in which the users of a language agree to employ that term.
13:25The relevant context for the use of literature
13:28and of a literary text
13:31This is not the original context of this text.
13:34but the society that makes literary use of it,
13:37separating it from its original context.
13:42Literature is literature.
13:44that which authorities, teachers, and publishers include in literature.
13:48Their limits sometimes shift slowly, moderately,
13:52but it is impossible to move from its extent to its comprehension,
13:57From the canon to its essence.
13:59I, Nayara Macena Gomes, always like to highlight the unsatisfactory character.
14:05of the definitions of literature
14:07before presenting the definitions available in theory.
14:10Because I think accepting that it does not constitute a static category
14:15and that depends primarily on community consensus.
14:18It brings peace to continue studying.
14:22And just like Wiggleton, the companion roams through many definitions.
14:25and points out their limitations.
14:29Let's see.
14:31The first point is to define literature in terms of scope.
14:36So, in a broad sense, literature is everything that is printed.
14:39Works of rhetoric, poetics, history, philosophy, and science.
14:43We study this in high school.
14:45Strictly speaking, literature varies according to the era.
14:49Having overcome the notion of fine literature and the classical doctrine of eternity,
14:53of universality, blah, blah, blah, in the 19th century,
14:57Romanticism ultimately brings about a perception of literature.
15:01in its relations with the nation and with its history.
15:04In a strict sense, literature is only highbrow literature.
15:08not the popular kind, which gets labeled as paraliterature.
15:12Put it in that paraliterature bag.
15:16works that are there more for consumption,
15:19Like Bridgerton, you know?
15:21That many people like.
15:23I'm not criticizing, I'm giving an example, okay?
15:28And the second point would be to understand literature in terms of function.
15:34So, there we have catharsis.
15:35For Aristotle, the function of literature
15:38It was about purifying the emotions.
15:40like fear and piety,
15:42To instruct while pleasing.
15:43The knowledge presented would be that which is general.
15:48probable or likely, adoxa.
15:50These are the ultimate sentences that allow one to understand.
15:52and to regulate human behavior and social life.
15:56For Romanticism, the function of literature is to teach,
15:59Above all, what is individual and unique.
16:03The humanist model proposes that there is
16:05a knowledge of the world and of humans
16:08which is made possible primarily through literature.
16:11Modern subjectivity developed
16:14with the help of literary experience
16:16And the reader is the model of a free man.
16:19The third point is literature.
16:23to define literature in terms of form and content.
16:27And then the colleague suggests a cut.
16:30to address this point.
16:31Let's suppose he's referring to
16:33To the art of poetry, okay?
16:35So, from antiquity up to the 18th century,
16:38imitation or representation,
16:39mimesis, right, of human actions through language,
16:42That is, a mutual fable or story.
16:46However, he admitted that these imitations
16:49They were neither true nor false.
16:50but plausible.
16:52Aristotle, therefore, had already defined fiction.
16:54and, for that reason, excluding its definition.
16:58didactic or satirical poetry, as well as lyric poetry,
17:01which brought the poet's self into play.
17:03He preserved the epic genres,
17:05That's the narrative, right?
17:07and the tragic part, which would be the drama,
17:09That would be... no, that's the drama.
17:11The fourth point that the companion raises
17:13It is to define literature as a form of expression.
17:18So, starting in the 17th century,
17:20Literature begins to be perceived
17:21through the aesthetic use of language.
17:25The Romanticism of the 18th century, folks,
17:27from the 18th century onwards,
17:28Literature begins to be perceived
17:29through the aesthetic use of language.
17:31Romanticism proposes a separation.
17:33between life and literature,
17:34Literature being a redemption of life.
17:36Everyday language is separated
17:38of literary language.
17:40To that use, properly speaking, literary,
17:44of language, the Russian formalists
17:46They called it literariness.
17:48So, the object of literary science
17:50It's not literature,
17:52but literariness,
17:53In other words, what makes a particular work...
17:56a literary work.
17:58They realize that each attempt at definition
18:00It approaches the object from one aspect,
18:03and these attempts,
18:04They don't seem to be able to cope.
18:05universally, from the concept, right?
18:07of literature.
18:08Although literature is the art of using words,
18:11Not all literary works use obvious metaphors.
18:14Not all literary works are fictional.
18:22I left you an article.
18:24written by a researcher
18:29Chinese, right, I think.
18:32by name,
18:33Dong Xiaoping.
18:34Excuse my Mandarin,
18:36My Chinese, which is terrible.
18:37But, in this article,
18:39this author or female author
18:41talks about characteristic speeches
18:45modern versions of Emily Dickinson's poetry,
18:47and says that she is considered the grandmother.
18:49of American poetry.
18:51Dickinson wrote 1775 poems.
18:55but only seven were published
18:57during his life.
18:58Dickinson's poems address themes such as
19:01Love, death, nature, immortality, and beauty.
19:05Much research has been done on these topics.
19:08And then the author speaks, right?
19:11if the form of the poem is the vehicle of the poet's mind,
19:15we can infer some of Dickinson's thoughts
19:17based on their shapes.
19:19In addition to being a representative of transcendental poets,
19:23Dickinson can be considered the precursor of modernism.
19:27Personally, I'm not currently involved in the article, okay?
19:30I left it there for you to use for your readings.
19:32that you will need,
19:33to support your analysis,
19:35Next one, right?
19:38Personally, I've already taken a look.
19:40of private studies, right?
19:43of my own interests, therefore,
19:44in some poetry courses,
19:46there on the Coursera platform,
19:48And then they put Emily Dickinson in.
19:51along with Walt Whitman,
19:53and they position them both as proto-modernists,
19:56I found this, this, this, this categorization.
20:01That's very interesting, because John, Don Xiaoping,
20:05I don't know if it's a man or a woman, you know.
20:07Yes, speak up, you're already presenting them as forerunners, right?
20:12of modernism.
20:13I'm going to make a brief digression here.
20:16so we can comment on a term.
20:19which you might use, right?
20:22when you write your first analysis.
20:32And let's talk about the terms.
20:35poet and poetess, right?
20:37Which one should we use?
20:39You'll probably have to use that word.
20:41when you write your first analysis.
20:45And then I took a look here.
20:47on the website of the Brazilian Academy of Letters,
20:50And what she explains is that morphologically
20:56the two terms, they,
20:58They are consistent with the historical patterns of our language.
21:01although,
21:03in recent years,
21:05So, in short, in recent years,
21:07The poet began to be interpreted frequently.
21:12as a common noun of two genders,
21:14a single word that serves for both men and women,
21:17varying only the article,
21:19or poet to poet.
21:20The Brazilian Academy of Letters acknowledges this possibility.
21:26legitimizing the use of the poet
21:28in literary, academic, and journalistic texts.
21:31Look,
21:32even if there is another word,
21:36I honestly advise you
21:37They'll keep using poet, right?
21:41even to avoid any discussion,
21:44what if you guys go to one,
21:45I don't know, a conference,
21:46something like that,
21:47then sometimes you have to defend
21:48the use of that term, you know,
21:51And then you waste time and lose focus on your discussion.
21:54Unless you want to mark this positively.
21:57Teacher,
22:01Professor Elogia Xavier,
22:03I read that book of hers.
22:06What Kind of Body Is This?
22:07It's been a long time, hasn't it?
22:08It was back in my IC days,
22:10And then she talked about positively emphasizing the feminine,
22:17And I think that's a very good idea, right?
22:21depending on the focus you want to give it
22:24for your text,
22:26Yes, you can use the term.
22:28But then it's up to you, right?
22:31does it make sense to use the term
22:33when you are writing an article,
22:35or when you are writing
22:37Your analyses for this subject.
22:39If you think it makes sense
22:41you use that word,
22:43You use it, right?
22:44otherwise you'll save some money
22:46And you'll keep using poets, okay?