Poetics Today · 1985 · 48 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesLiteratureLiterary CriticismLiterary StudiesLiterary TheoryModernismPoeticsPostmodern LiteratureRussian LiteratureLiterary EvolutionRussian ModernismRussian PostmodernismSemiotic Interpretation
The lectures examine Modernism and Postmodernism through semiotic contrastive analysis, situating literary innovation within a framework of literary evolution derived from Russian Formalism, reception theory, and semioticians such as Lotman and Eco. The author calls for empirical textual and psychological studies to further corroborate these semiotic insights. The study identifies key literary conventions of Modernist writers (e.g., Gide, Woolf, Mann) and the innovations introduced by Postmodernist authors (e.g., Borges, Calvino, Hermans).
In these lectures, delivered at Harvard University in March 1983, the differences between Modernism and Postmodernism are discussed in semiotic terms, based on a contrastive analysis of semantic and syntactical (compositional) features. They present the major results of research into the literary conventions of Modernism (Gide, Larbaud, V. Woolf, du Perron, Th. Mann) and the innovations of Postmodernism (Borges, Fuentes, Barthelme, Calvino, Hermans). The investigation of innovation in literary history is based on a concept of literary evolution, launched by the Russian Formalists and elaborated by reception theory and semioticians such as Lotman and Eco. The author argues for further corroboration by means of empirical – textual as well as psychological – research.