“Theory before ‘Theory’ - Liberal Humanism’

1. What were the rules for English higher education till the first quarter of the 19th
century? (paragraph 1)
2. When and where did the expansion of higher education first take place? (Paragraph 2)
3. When and where was English literature first taught? (Paragraph 2)
4. How did F.D. Maurice, their first Professor in English, regard literature and English
literature? (Paragraph 3)
5. Apart from the desire to maintain the political status qua for the middle class English,
what motivations were there in promoting English literature? (Paragraph 5)
6. Why did the ancient universities resist the establishment of study of English
literature? One of their views is represented by Edward Freeman. (Paragraphs 6-8)
7. How did the Cambridge English courses differ from those in Oxford? (Paragraph 10)
8. What was the method of studying English, which was founded by I. A. Richards?
(Paragraph 11)
9. What criticisms were there against F.R. Leavis’ close analysis of literary texts?
(Paragraph 14)
10. What was the legacy of the criticism developed by those Cambridge people?
(Paragraph 15)
11. What were we thought to learn when we studied English? 10 items. (Paragraph 15)
12. How did Aristotle ‘theorize’ literature? General theory of literature rather than
analysis of individual works. (Paragraph 18)
13. How did Sir Philip Sidney define the role of literature? (Paragraph 19)
14. What did Wordsworth advocate in Preface to Lyrical Ballads as the essence of
poetry? (Paragraph 21)
15. In what ways is Coleridge’s literary theory different from that of Wordsworth?
(Paragraph 22)
16. What is the notion of Eliot’s ‘impersonality’? (Paragraph 22)
17. Why can Keat’s ‘theory’ be considered as a precursor to Freudian notion of the mind
consisting of the consciousness and unconsciousness? (Paragraph 22)
18. What ideas and attitudes did Matthew Arnold have towards literature? (Paragraph
24)
19. What does T.S. Eliot mean by ‘dissociation of sensibility’? (Paragraph 26)
20. What is the crucial difference for Eliot between the individual (author) and the voice
(Writer) in the poetry? (Paragraph 27)
21. What does T.S. Eliot mean by ‘objective correlative’? (Paragraph 28)
22. Why is William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity an ambiguous work?
(Paragraph 32)
23. A debate between liberal humanism and ‘theory’ similar to the one erupted in the
1970s had taken place in the 1930s. Describe the debate. (Paragraph 34)
24. How would a liberal humanist critic read Poe’s ‘The Oval Portrait’? (Paragraph 37)
25. What are the two traits of critical approach conspicuous in this liberal humanist
critical tradition? (Paragraph 38)
26. What were the four branches of critical theory that grew in the 1960s? (Paragraph
39)
27. What were the new theoretical approaches that developed first in France in the
1970s? (Paragraph 40)
28. Other new theoretical approaches appeared in the 1980s. What were those who
originated from US and Great Britain? (Paragraph 40)
29. What were the theoretical approaches that became conspicuous in the 1990s?
(Paragraph 41)