| During the past thirty years the principles of the New Criticism have given way to what might be described as contextual principles. This new contextualism has been accompanied by a revival of literary history. My work addresses, from a Marxist point of view, some of the central theoretical problems of this new literary history. My major concerns include the use of the base/superstructure metaphor, the notion of art as a reflection of reality, and the notion that art is determined. I also discuss at some length the possibilities and problems of a genuine, empirical literary sociology. My authorities are primarily those aestheticians working in the Anglo-American tradition. They include Raymond Williams, E. P. Thompson, Frederic Jameson, Richard Ohmann, and Terry Eagleton. I frequently test my theoretical formulations against primary texts. This dissertation includes readings of novelists from Austen to Steinbeck. |
