Nature, Wit, and Invention: Contextualizing An Essay on Criticism
Abstract
This article contextualizes the eighteenth-century English poet Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism (1711) and his other literary essays in order to elicit Pope’s contributions to the neoclassical norm. Exploring the aesthetic interchanges between Pope and his predecessors and contemporaries, I endeavor to show how Pope’s poetry and prose have tackled the difficult task of unifying antithetical categories of invention and judgment into the Johnsonian “general nature.”
References
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---. (1966). “Treatise of Human Nature.” Literary Criticism in England: 1660-1800. Ed. Gerald Wester Chapman. New York: Knopf, 168.
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Johnson, Samuel. (1970). “Preface to Shakespeare.” Criticism: The Major Texts. Ed. Walter Jackson Bate. New York: Harcourt, 207–17.
---. (1984). “Life of Pope.” Samuel Johnson. Ed. Donald Greene. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 725–52.
Jonson, Ben. (1963). “Timber, or Discovery.” English Literary Criticism: The Renaissance. Ed. O. B. Hardison. New York: Meredith Publishing, 270–92.
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Pope, Alexander. (1961). Twickenham Edition of An Essay on Criticism. Ed. E. Audra and Aubrey Williams. London: Methuen.
---. (1965). Literary Criticism of Alexander Pope. Ed. Bertrand A. Goldgar. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
Reynolds, Joshua. (1971). “Discourses.” Late Augustan Prose. Ed. Patricia Meyer Spacks. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 279–98.
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Spingarn, J. E. (1957). Introduction. Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century. London: Oxford University Press, i–cvi.
Swift, Jonathan. (1963). The Tatler. (Sept. 28, 1770). English Literary Criticism: Restoration and 18th Century. Ed. Samuel Hynes. New York: Meredith Publishing, 144–49.
Vida, Marco Girolamo. (1951). The Art of Poetry. Trans. Christopher Pitt. The Great Critics: An Anthology of Literary Criticism. Eds. James Harry Smith and Edd Winfield Parks. New York: Norton, 800–04.
Addison, Joseph, and Richard Steele. (1970). The Spectator. Ed. Gregory Smith. 4 vols. London: J. M Dent & Sons. Vol. 2.
Aristotle. (1970). Poetics. Trans. S. H. Butcher. Criticism: The Major Texts. Ed. Walter Jackson Bate. New York: Harcourt, 19–39.
Auden, W. H. (1972). “Alexander Pope.” Pope: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall,15–29.
Audra, E. and Aubrey Williams, ed. (1961). An Essay on Criticism. By Alexander Pope. London: Methuen.
Bacon, Francis. (1985). The Essays. London: Penguin.
Butler, Samuel. (2000). Hudibras. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Eds. Lawrence Lipking, M. A. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton. 2156–65.
Feng, Dong. “The Great Harmony: An Essay on Man and Confucianism.” The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture 2 (2008) 1: 53–97.
Hazlitt, William. (1960a). “On Poetry in General.” Selected Essays of William Hazlitt: 1778-1830. Ed. Geoffrey Keynes. New York: Random House, 386–410.
---. (1960b). The Spirit of the Age. London: Oxford University Press.
Hobbes, Thomas. (1963). “Answer to Davenant’s Preface to Gondibert.” English Literary Criticism: The Renaissance. Ed. O. B. Hardison. New York: Meredith Publishing, 294–304.
---. (1966). “Treatise of Human Nature.” Literary Criticism in England: 1660-1800. Ed. Gerald Wester Chapman. New York: Knopf, 168.
Hooker, E. N. (1951). “Pope on Wit: The ‘Essay on Criticism.’” Seventeenth Century Studies in the History of English Thought and Literature from Bacon to Pope. Ed. R. F. Jones. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 225–246.
Horace. (1970). Art of Poetry. Trans. Walter Jackson Bate. Criticism: The Major Texts. Ed. Walter Jackson Bate. New York: Harcourt, 51–58.
Hume, David. (1932). “Of Simplicity and Refinement in Writing.” Eighteenth Century Prose. Eds. Louis I. Bredvold, Robert K. Root, and George Sherburn. New York: Ronald Press, 622–25.
Isles, Duncan. (1972). “Pope and Criticism.” Alexander Pope. Ed. Peter Dixon. Athens: Ohio University Press, 250–85.
Jensen, H. James. Ed. (1969). A Glossary of John Dryden’s Critical Terms. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Johnson, Samuel. (1970). “Preface to Shakespeare.” Criticism: The Major Texts. Ed. Walter Jackson Bate. New York: Harcourt, 207–17.
---. (1984). “Life of Pope.” Samuel Johnson. Ed. Donald Greene. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 725–52.
Jonson, Ben. (1963). “Timber, or Discovery.” English Literary Criticism: The Renaissance. Ed. O. B. Hardison. New York: Meredith Publishing, 270–92.
O’Neill, Judith. (1972). Critics on Pope. Coral Garbles, Miami: University of Miami Press.
Pope, Alexander. (1961). Twickenham Edition of An Essay on Criticism. Ed. E. Audra and Aubrey Williams. London: Methuen.
---. (1965). Literary Criticism of Alexander Pope. Ed. Bertrand A. Goldgar. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
Reynolds, Joshua. (1971). “Discourses.” Late Augustan Prose. Ed. Patricia Meyer Spacks. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 279–98.
Sitwell, Edith. (1962). Alexander Pope. New York: Norton.
Spingarn, J. E. (1957). Introduction. Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century. London: Oxford University Press, i–cvi.
Swift, Jonathan. (1963). The Tatler. (Sept. 28, 1770). English Literary Criticism: Restoration and 18th Century. Ed. Samuel Hynes. New York: Meredith Publishing, 144–49.
Vida, Marco Girolamo. (1951). The Art of Poetry. Trans. Christopher Pitt. The Great Critics: An Anthology of Literary Criticism. Eds. James Harry Smith and Edd Winfield Parks. New York: Norton, 800–04.
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Published
2017-06-30
How to Cite
Feng, D. (2017). Nature, Wit, and Invention: Contextualizing An Essay on Criticism. Journal of Narrative and Language Studies, 5(8), 26–37. Retrieved from https://nalans.com/index.php/nalans/article/view/62
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