Progression of History | Psychoanalytic Theory
Hegel Freud
/ \ |
Marx/Engels Wordsworth | Psychoanalytic Applied to Language
| Coleridge Lacan
Adorno/Horkheimer Emerson | |
Nietzsche | De Saussure
New Critics | |
Eliot Barthes
Wilmsatt/Beardsley Interpreting Texts
Schleiermacher
My diagram is meant to demonstrate the connection between theorists in a format similar to a family tree in which the dashes indicate which theorists’ ideas are built upon and expanded by subsequent theorists. The dash down the middle represents the idea of truth or reality that all of the thinkers are trying to find in some form. Aristotle and Plato are placed on opposite sides of the trunk (dash center line) because they had opposite views on the same idea. While Plato believed art did not give insight to truth, Aristotle believed truth could be found in art, especially tragedy. Sidney is placed with Aristotle because he also believes in the value of art, particularly poetry, stating that it can give more insight to truth than philosophy and history can.
Once Hegel comes on the scene, it seemed that more of the theorists were interrelated, directly building upon the ideas of others. Hegel’s interpretation of the dialectical movement of history with each event joining with its antithesis and his idea of positivism are utilized by many later theorists. For example, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels applied the dialectical movement of history to their theory that eventually the proletariat would revolt against the bourgeoisie, dissolving existing capitalist institutions and creating a new world order. Marx and Engels ideas gave birth to Adorno and Horkenheimer, and also Althusser’s application to culture, conveying how capitalism is evident in all cultural entertainment and institutions. Branching in a different direction, Hegel’s concept of positivism influenced the romanticists, Emerson, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. All three theorists believed in the power of the individual to find truth inside himself and believed that man should not copy history, but only refer to it, in order to create better works. Stemming from this, Nietzsche also believes an individual should act for one’s self,and illustrates this with the thesis and antithesis of Dionysian and Apollonian characteristics. This diagram is intended to show that the theorists’ ideas are not separate, but many originate from the concepts of other critics.
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI like your groupings as well as the split down the middle. I think that using their views of reality can be very useful.