A Study Of James Wood’s Literary Criticism

James Wood is a British literary critic,essayist and novelist.He was Chief literary critic of The Guardian and senior editor of The New Republic.He is now professor of the Practice of literary criticism at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker.James Wood grew up under the background of "post-theory","aesthetic" and "literary" turning,and called for the "Theory" which had long left the field of literature to return to literary works.At the same time,Wood has the characteristics of media criticism,forming a literary criticism that focuses on literature,authors and readers.Wood’s view of literary criticism shows obvious characteristics of emphasizing practice and aesthetic appreciation,which is realized through "writing through" criticism.This is in sharp contrast to the literary criticism of theoretical rehearsal,Wood is more inclined to make aesthetic judgments in practice,rather than present as aesthetic theory.From this perspective,this thesis clarifies the basic connotation of Wood’s literary criticism,and takes Wood’s critical practice of contemporary novels as the breakthrough point to perspective the practice of Wood’s literary criticism,and combs out the realistic aesthetic tendency of Wood’s literary criticism.Finally,from the perspective of post-theory,it discusses the return of liberal humanism to Wood’s literary critical view,which attaches importance to works,authors,readers and aesthetics,and its intertextual relationship with the trend of theoretical revival in the 21 st century.Except for the introduction and conclusion,the whole text is divided into five chapters.The first chapter mainly combs the formation of Wood’s literary criticism view.Wood’s literary criticism practice came into being under the background of post-theory era,and his literary criticism view showed an obvious turn of "aesthetic" and "literary".In addition,the formation of Wood’s literary criticism is also closely related to the environment in which he grew up.Wood’s questioning of religion triggered his thinking on the freedom and reality of novels.The media criticism he engaged in also had an impact on his literary criticism view of paying attention to literature,authors,readers and aesthetics,which required him to pay attention to the characteristics of ordinary readers.The second chapter explores the specific theoretical origin of Wood’s literary criticism.Wood was deeply influenced by British liberal humanism,which had an impact on the aesthetic tendency of realism in Wood’s critical view.At the same time,he also applied formalism,showing the absorption of "theoretical" resources.The writer-critic tradition of Coleridge and Woolf and Bloom’s "new Aestheticism" lay the theoretical foundation for Wood to distinguish from "theory" and turn to aesthetic judgment and focus on the critical practice scene.The third chapter clarifies the basic connotation of Wood’s literary criticism.The basic connotation of Wood’s literary criticism can be summarized into the following three points: the critical concept of "criticism as a kind of practice",the critical essence of criticism as a kind of re-creation seeking beauty,and the realization way of "writing through".Wood has always been committed to conveying the freedom in his works through critical practice,critically applying theory,re-establishing criticism as a practice,and insisting that the ultimate practice is the theory.Wood’s criticism "as a practice" pays attention to the expression of "aesthetics" as well as the independence and creativity of criticism itself,which is realized in the way of "writing criticism".The fourth chapter discusses the concrete practice of Wood’s literary criticism: fiction criticism.Firstly,it points out that the general principle of Wood’s novel criticism is to show freedom,and discusses the influence of Wood’s novel view of showing freedom on Wood’s request that criticism should convey freedom in literary works.Then,it explores Wood’s criticism of Hysterical Realism novels that idolize information and transform novels into social theories under the influence of literary criticism that attaches importance to literature,authors,readers and aesthetics.Finally,it summarizes the standard of Wood’s novel criticism which is close to the realistic aesthetic tendency of life.What Wood actually evokes is the humanist tradition of literary criticism.The fifth chapter is about Wood’s literary criticism.The key value of Wood’s literary criticism lies in his return to liberal humanism and his post-theory turn to "aesthetics" and "literature".At present,Chinese literary criticism is also in a rather active period.Wood’s independent critical consciousness in literary criticism and his attention to the composition of text,author and reader in the field of critical practice can give us some inspiration.At the same time,it also reveals the problems of Wood’s literary criticism such as not paying enough attention to ideological criticism and his preference for realism.