(完整版)《西方文学理论》题库(含参考答案)

1.What are the origin and features of literary theory in classical times? P1-2

1）It originates in all societies from the very earliest times. And it is related to the Greek forms.

They were tied in very tightly to specific social occasion, for instance, plays recitation of Homeric epics, epinician or

victory odes were conducted in different rituals.

2) a.It focused on concept genre , which sprang up almost automatically in Greek ‘literary’ theory.

b. The element of ritual was modified by the element of agon or contest.

c. Greek plays, epics and odes were all performed to an audience. The role of audience was inescapable.

d. The textual object of Greek ‘literary’ theory is the term poiesis. It is in its relations with neighbouring areas of verbal

composition.

e. It makes no clear separation between the language of poiesis and the language of legal debate, or political debate, or

public speaking.

2. By the first century B. C., the rhetorical critics had established two important systems of classification. What are they?

Expound them in details. P4

1)The first system of classification was a division of stylistic registers into the high (or grand), the middle (or moderate),

and the low(or plain).The grand style calls for strong emotion and elevated language, the plain style calls for quiet simplicity,

and relatively unadorned language, the middle style is a quiet but not simple style, it calls for sweetness, smoothness,

flowingness. Each style is considered appropriate for specific audiences and specific forms of persuasion. The grand style

serves to sway an audience to resolution and decision, the middle style serves to win an audience by charming conciliation,

and the plain style serves to convince by argument.

2)The second system was the system of tropes and figures. A trope is a deviation from the normal use of an individual word,

while a figure is a deviation from the normal arrangement of words or the normal sequence of thought. The tropes include

metaphor, synecdoche, and metonymy. Figures and tropes are viewed as ornaments or clothing for an already existing

material and the same may be said of all other stylistic devices discussed by rhetorical critics

3. What are the features of Rhetoric tradition? P5

1) The first feature of Rhetoric tradition is that the traditional separation of form and content is about all a tradition of

rhetorical criticism.

2) Another feature of the rhetorical tradition is the emphasis upon details at the expanse of larger wholes. Large-scale unity

is not a major concern for the rhetorical critics.

3) The last feature is that rhetorical criticism was a very conservative discipline. Its history contains no drastic challenges or

revolutions of the kind associated with later literary criticism, which has typically been affected by the changeability of the

object, literature.

4. What are the three most plausibe criteria for defining literature? P6

1)The quality of dramatization.

2) The quality of fictionality.

3)A special figurative quality of language.

5. Discuss Plato’s theory of imitation or mimesis. P6-10

1)Mimesis is a critical and philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include imitation, representation,

mimicry, imitatio, receptivity, nonsensuous similarity, the act of resembling, the act of expression, and the presentation of

the self.

In ancient Greece, mimesis was an idea that governed the creation of works of art, in particular, with correspondence to

the physical world understood as a model for beauty, truth, and the good. Plato contrasted mimesis, or imitation, with

diegesis, or narrative.

Plato saw in mimesis the representation of nature. Plato wrote about mimesis in both Ion and The Republic (Books II,

III, and X). In Ion, he states that poetry is the art of divine madness, or inspiration. Because the poet is subject to this divine

madness, it is not his/her function to convey the truth.[citation needed] As Plato has it, truth is the concern of the

philosopher only. As culture in those days did not consist in the solitary reading of books, but in the listening to

performances, the recitals of orators (and poets), or the acting out by classical actors of tragedy, Plato maintained in his

critique that theatre was not sufficient in conveying the truth.[citation needed] He was concerned that actors or orators were

thus able to persuade an audience by rhetoric rather than by telling the truth.[citation needed] In Book II of The Republic, Plato describes Socrates' dialogue with his pupils. Socrates warns we should not seriously

regard poetry as being capable of attaining the truth and that we who listen to poetry should be on our guard against its

seductions, since the poet has no place in our idea of God.

In developing this in Book X, Plato told of Socrates' metaphor of the three beds: one bed exists as an idea made by God

(the Platonic ideal); one is made by the carpenter, in imitation of God's idea; one is made by the artist in imitation of the

carpenter's.

2) Imitation imitates men performing actions either forced or voluntary, and believing that they are either successful or not

in these actions, and feeling pain or pleasure as a result of it all.

Plato also uses the term mimesis in a more restricted, though still related, sense. That is, he distinguishes between

mimesis as the speech of a character directly reproduced, and diegesis as narration of doings and sayings. Plato disapproves

of both imitation in general and dramatised dialogue in particular.

Plato disapproval is at bottom a disapproval of any form of copying. Because, in his view, imitation cannot see through

to the most real reality, the true. In drama, impersonations rub off very readily onto the impersonator, becoming lasting

disposition of personality.

Plato's case against mimesis in the unrestricted sense focuses upon the fact that drama and epic imitate the world of

perceptual appearances.

6. There are three worlds in Plato’s opinion. What are they? What are their relationship? P8-9

1)There is, first, the world that consists of physical bodies: of stones and of stars; of plants and of animals; but also of

radiation, and of other forms of physical energy. I will call this physical world ‘world 1’.

If we so wish, we can subdivide the physical world 1 into the world of non-living physical objects and into the world

of living things, of biological objects; though the distinction is not sharp.

There is, secondly, the mental or psychological world, the world of our feelings of pain and of pleasure, of our

thoughts, of our decisions, of our perceptions and our observations; in other words, the world of mental or psychological

states or processes, or of subjective experiences. I will call it ‘world 2’. World 2 is immensely important, especially from a

human point of view or from a moral point of view. Human suffering belongs to world 2; and human suffering, especially

avoidable suffering, is the central moral problem for all those who can help.

By world 3 I mean the world of the products of the human mind, such as languages; tales and stories and religious

myths; scientific conjectures or theories, and mathematical constructions; songs and symphonies; paintings and sculptures.

The reality of the mental world 2 - and with it, the reality of human suffering -has been sometimes denied; more recently by

certain monistic materialists or physicalists, or by certain radical behaviourists. On the other hand, the reality of the world 2

of subjective experiences is admitted by common sense.

Many of the objects belonging to world 3 belong at the same time also to the physical world 1. Michelangelo’s

sculpture The Dying Slave is both a block of marble, belonging to the world 1 of physical objects, and a creation of

Michelangelo’s mind, and as such belonging to world 3. The same holds of course for paintings.

2) In Plato's opinion, the three worlds are the world of perceptual appearances, the world of the reality of abstractions, and

the world of drama,epic, ode and lyric.

Plato sees the world of perceptual appearances as secondary and derivative.

According to Plato, the world of perceptual appearances is nothing more than an imitation of the reality of abstractions.

(艺术世界的关系没找到）

7. What are the differences between Plato and Aristotle in their literary theory? P10-14(可能是论述题）

1）Compared with Plato, Aristotle appears as a less absolute theorist, more interested in describing and classifying things as

they are, with less regard to ultimate principles. In the Poetics, he follows Plato in defining poetry as mimesis, specifically

the imitation of an action. But whereas Plato condemns mere copying, Aristotle views the impulse to mimicry as a natural

healthy human impulse: （引文见课本P10）

2）The difference between Aristotle and Plato arises not merely from a difference of temperament but from a difference of

general conceptual framework. Aristotle's way of thinking about the world is dominated by the model of the biological

organism. Clearly, the Aristotelian version of mimesis is no mere matter of passive copying.

3）Aristotle claims for poetry a higher kind of truth: not the reporting of factual details but the understanding of underlying

generalities. Again, this is a rebuttal of Plato and his view that poetry is cut off from the universal because it is cut off from