page_title: Theory of Literature
section_title: Section 1: Definitions and Distinctions.
hierarchical_section_title: Theory of Literature / Contents / Section 1: Definitions and Distinctions.
caption_attribution_description: العربية: اعتُقد طويلًا أنَّ هذه هي الصورة الوحيدة لويليام شكسپير التي رُسمت خلال حياته، إلى أن تمَّ العُثور على صورةٍ أُخرى يُحتمل أن تكون قد رُسمت كذلك قبل وفاته، وهي رسمة كوبّ، التي كُشف النقاب عنها سنة 2009م. تُعرف هذه اللوحة باسم 'لوحة شاندوس' تيمُنًا بمالكها السَّابق، جيمس بريدجز، دوق شاندوس الأوَّل. كانت هذه الصورة أوَّل لوحة يحصل عليها معرض اللوحات الوطني سنة 1856م. English: This was long thought to be the only portrait of William Shakespeare that had any claim to have been painted from life, until another possible life portrait, the Cobbe portrait, was revealed in 2009. The portrait is known as the 'Chandos portrait' after a previous owner, James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. It was the first portrait to be acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 1856. The artist may be by a painter called John Taylor who was an important member of the Painter-Stainers' Company.&#91;1&#93;
context_page_description: Theory of Literature is a book on literary scholarship by René Wellek, of the structuralist Prague school, and Austin Warren, a self-described "old New Critic". The two met at the University of Iowa in the late 1930s, and by 1940 had begun writing the book; they wrote collaboratively, in a single voice over a period of three years. Its contents were based on their shared understandings of literature.
  Originally consisting of twenty chapters – one was cut in later editions – Theory of Literature describes various aspects of literary theory, criticism, and history. After defining various aspects and relationships of literature in general, Wellek and Warren divide analysis of literature based on two approaches: extrinsic, relating to factors outside a work such as the author and society, and intrinsic, relating to factors within such as rhythm and meter. They stress the need to focus on the intrinsic elements of a work as the best way to truly understand it. In doing so they adapt the phenomenology used by Roman Ingarden.
  Published by Harcourt, Brace, and Company in December 1948, Theory of Literature received mixed reviews from the academic community.
context_section_description: The first section, entitled Definitions and Distinctions, consists of five chapters and details how Wellek and Warren define literature. This section also contrasts Wellek and Warren's definition with those of others, such views of literature as everything in print and as only belles-lettres (accepted literary canon). They define literary scholarship as beyond the personal ("super-personal") and contrasted with the literary arts by its more scientific approach. Wellek and Warren suggest that neither a purely objective nor a purely subjective approach would be able to properly describe literature. They note that literary scholarship should not only examine what makes a work or author unique, but also its general characteristics that allow it to be compared to other works.
  Wellek and Warren limit their definition of literature to pieces of "imaginative literature", which can gain artistic merit from their coherence and complexity. The language in literary works is contrasted from scientific and other language by the use of connotative (non-literal) language and expressive content. Studies of literature must be literary and systematic, treating literature as literature and not part of another field. Wellek and Warren discuss several proposed functions of literature, beginning with Horace's proclamation that literature must be "sweet and useful" (dulce et utile; have a coalescing aesthetic and functional role), and extending to literature as a substitute for travel and experience, a vehicle for truth or persuasion, to relieve or incite emotion, or as something without a function. They ultimately describe the main function of literature as being loyal to its own nature.
  They call for a systematic and integrated study of literature, uniting literary theory, which outlines the basic principles of literature; criticism, which critiques individual works; and history, which outlines the development of literature. Although these aspects have clear distinctions, they are in a dialectical relationship and should not be separated; for example, a theory of literature is impossible without referring to works of literature. They reject Historicist approaches to literary history, which they find reduce literary history to "a series of discrete and hence finally incomprehensible fragments" and emphasize the author's intent too greatly. Instead, Wellek and Warren argue that a work must be seen from the point of view of both its own period and all subsequent periods, as a work's historical meaning is derived from "the history of its criticism by its many readers in many ages." Criticism should not be limited to classical and medieval literature, but also include works by living authors.
  Wellek and Warren describe the term comparative literature as "troublesome", noting that it has been used for the study of oral literature, the study of the literatures in two or more countries, and the study of a "general", "universal", or "world" literature; this last use, according to the authors, obviates issues present in the other understandings of the term. This understanding of literature as a totality can be used to trace the development of the art, unlimited by differences between languages. Within this comparative literature other supernational literatures, which may be based on language families and schools, are also apparent. There are also national literatures which, although possibly of the same language, will still have thematic differentiations. These are also worthy of study.
caption: In describing the treatment of manuscripts, Wellek and Warren often cite research into the works of William Shakespeare.[36]
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