English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

5-4-1976

Abstract

Objective description of literary technique is an aspect of literary criticism which has largely been ignored, in part because of the influence of the Formalist school of literary criticism which insists that all critical reading is necessarily subjective and that intention--an integral element in any examination of literary technique--is impossible to isolate or define. Contemporary structuralists disagree. Structuralists believe that the "system" of' literature, like any other language system, is comprised of both performance and competence. That is the structuralists assume that, to read a text as literature rather than as sentences the reader must first internalize a "grammar" of literature--the value system, conventions, symbolic logic, and purpose of literature in general In other words, they assume that there is a certain universal, innate and hence objective sense of structure which lies behind the construction of any literary text. Structuralists however, tend to ignore the purpose behind a specific literary structure. Kenneth Burke, though not a self-identified structuralist, patterns his critical apparatus in a similar fashion, except that his concern is almost exclusively for motive and purpose. Burke's theory of symbolic action which is grounded on certain biological-neurological universals of the human experience, is similar to the structuralist's theory of literary competence, and his critical apparatus, the "dramatistic pentad," posits these extrinsic functions as integral units of a literary structure in much the same manner as the structuralists consider competence to be an integral function in performance. This combination of Burke's theories of motive and purpose with the structuralist's theories of narrative operations provides an ideal means of dealing objectively with prose narrative technique. Additionally, this combination provides an apparatus which allows the critic to discuss the purpose, motive, and effect of a literary structure by noting how an individual artist manipulates the various universals of literary structure. Moreover, because the apparatus shows conclusively that motive and purpose are immanent in the structure itself the critic has a means of recovering the artist's intention and thereby the efficacy of the process. By approaching a text in this manner one can uncover certain meanings and motives which lie buried in the text and which are not recoverable through any of the purely intrinsic approaches to literary structure. The concluding chapter of the dissertation demonstrates that, when seen through the perspective of Burkean structuralism, William Faulkner's Go Down, Moses, which many critics feel lacks a unifying theme, reveals a definitely unified thematic structure and shows a theme which recurs in many of Faulkner's novels of the Southern aristocracy--the destructive nature of extremes. Moreover, such an approach affords the critic a means of discussing not only how the text is constructed, but why--not only the act of construction, but the drama as well.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Roy Glenwood Pickett

Second Committee Member

Ellen Spolsky

Third Committee Member

David Marcus Johnson

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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