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Harvard University Press eBooks· 2015· Book chapter

Theory of the Lyric

Jonathan Culler

Short summary

Jonathan Culler challenges traditional models of lyric poetry, arguing that poems are not solely expressions of subjective experience or the speech of a persona, and questioning the assumption that poems exist primarily for interpretation.

AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.

Key points

  • Challenges the Romantic model of lyric as subjective expression.
  • Critiques the modern model of lyric as the speech of a persona.
  • Questions the assumption that poems exist solely for interpretation.
  • Analyzes ancient and modern lyric poems from Sappho to Ashbery.

AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.

Abstract

What sort of thing is a lyric poem? An intense expression of subjective experience? The fictive speech of a specifiable persona? Examining ancient and modern poems from Sappho to Ashbery, Jonathan Culler reveals the limitations of these two models—the Romantic and the modern—and challenges the assumption that poems exist to be interpreted.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Harvard University Press eBooks, 2015 · DOI ↗

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Field: Literature and Literary Theory

Literature and Literary TheoryArts and Humanities