The Mirror and the Lamp
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition is a book by M. H. Abrams.
Thesis of the "Mirror and the Lamp"
In a powerful contrast, M. H. Abrams shows that until the Romantics, literature was usually understood as a mirror, reflecting the real world, in some kind of mimesis; but for the Romantics, writing was more like a lamp: the light of the writer's inner soul spilled out to illuminate the world.
Classification of Literary Theories in "The Mirror and the Lamp"
Literary theories, Abrams argues, can be divided into four main groups:
- Mimetic Theories (interested in the relationship between the Work and the Universe)
- Pragmatic Theories (interested in the relationship between the Work and the Audience)
- Expressive Theories (interested in the relationship between the Work and the Artist)
- Objective Theories (interested in close reading of the Work)
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Mirror and the Lamp" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
