English Language and Literature ETDs
Publication Date
1-7-1959
Abstract
One of the critical tenets of the twentieth century emphasizes the discreetness of the artist and the work of art. Whatever the artist has to say about his creation, whatever image of the artist may be found in his work, we look upon with interest; but that interest is an irrelevant interest and we recognize it to be so. The autonomy of the work of art is essentially inviolate. Whatever the extent of the artist's involvement in his work, we cannot, in justice to him and in justice to the continuum of artistic creation, credit him with it or discredit him because of it. Such are the contentions of the New Criticism. It is necessary to emphasize this disjunctiveness, however, not because of the position of the New Criticism--a position not universally held--but because the interpretation of Tristram Shandy as a manifestation of the author produces a distortion which nullifies and destroys much of the significance and the accomplishment of the book. It is not merely that, as the New Critics maintain, the attribution of presence of the author is irrelevant; in this very special instance, it is destructive.
Degree Name
English
Level of Degree
Doctoral
Department Name
English
First Committee Member (Chair)
Norton Barr Crowell
Second Committee Member
Dane Farnsworth Smith
Third Committee Member
Ernest Warnock Tedlock Jr
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Recommended Citation
Parish, Charles. "Twentieth-Century Criticism of Form in Tristram Shandy." (1959). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/254