As Literary Criticism

Geoffrey Hartman (1929- ), is American contemporary famous literary theorist and literary critic, who is one of the main representatives of the Yale school. Hartman tried to break the boundaries of criticism and literature, and regarded criticism as"criticism as literature", then lead philosophical thinking from Derrida and Deconstruction to literary reflection.Hartman strongly opposed the concept of the traditional criticism, and opposed the confrontation of criticism and literature. Moreover, we should remove the limits of criticism and literature, and combine the understanding of criticism to the understanding of literary works. We should view criticism as within literature, not outside of it. He believed that the text was constructed from generation to generation and that the serious criticism is creative. Hartman has Widespread academic research interests and engage in many fields. The thesis centers on his literature criticism and inquire into his unique insights and significance of criticism and literature.The thesis consists of seven parts, including introduction. The introduction introduces Hartman'biography experience and works, then carries on the certain division to her fundamental research according to the times. The introduction bases on the fact that the research on Hartman still encounters a cold reception, expounds the research value and significance of his literary criticism. The first Chapter is about the criticism view of Hartman. From the start of literary criticism tending to the subordinate status of literature, the thesis describes in detail the dominant ideology of criticism as literature, and sums up such nature as the creative, the emotional, and the sexual nature, explains the unified literary genre of criticism and literature. The second chapter analyzes the criticism means of Hartman. From the angle of deconstruction, the thesis analyzes the indeterminacy of language and text, further expand to the indeterminacy of the literary genre. From the angle of construction, the section analyzes the relationship of practical criticism and philosophy criticism, and reveals that the"avant-garde"genre foreshadows the unified mean of criticism and literature. The third chapter expounds the criticism personality of Hartman. Hartman'attention to the dominant status of reader and author and to the dialectical succession of literary criticism tradition, shows his criticism personality of humanism in the deconstruction view. The fourth chapter analyzes the reasons that the criticism personality of Hartman takes shape. The influence of Anglo-American criticism and Deconstruction, his personal experience, emotional tendencies, and the knowledge structure, contributed to the inevitable tendencies of his personality and his criticism ideas. The fifth chapter sums up the value and limitations of Hartman's critical theory. The value of his theory is reflected in the digestion of the boundaries of criticism and literature, the indeterminacy of literary genre, and in the"close reading"of critical text. Therefore, his theory has an important reference to contemporary literary criticism. But the limitation of his theory is reflected in the continuing effects of Anglo-American, in the"wilderness"future after canceling the boundaries of criticism and literature, and in the common problem of the deconstruction scholars. In conclusion, the thesis sums up the feature of Hartman's critical theory and the significance to Construction in borrowing and beyond aspects, and reveals the potential of Hartman's theory and the reference to our literary criticism.Hartman's theory of"criticism as literature", was the rebuttal to the phenomenon of literary criticism tended to be weaker, and had a specific meaning of the times, so we should look at its development from the dialectical perspective, and avoid too subjective judgement.