THE JOHNS HOPKINS GUIDE - TO LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM - Second Edition - Edited by Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth, and Imre Szeman

Sep 20, 2026

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A foreword by Richard Macksey frames literary criticism’s historical roots in classical antiquity, showing how enduring critical strategies take shape through polemical contests. It traces a plausible origin to Aristophanes’ comedy The Frogs, highlighting its agon between Aeschylus and Euripides and its civic-poetic stakes. The essay then follows criticism’s argumentative inheritance through Plato’s dialogues and Aristotle’s Poetics, emphasizing the ongoing war-like exchange between old and new interpretive standards.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages1012

Reading Time25 h 58 min

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Foreword

Literary criticism’s classical roots

The polemical “agon” and historical beginnings

The Frogs as a model of contest

Criticism’s polemical transmission to Plato and Aristotle

THE JOHNSHOPKINSGUIDE TOLITERARYTHEORY &CRITICISMEdited by Michael Groden, SECOND EDITION Martin Kreiswirth,and Imre Szeman # THE JOHNS HOPKINS GUIDETO LITERARY THEORY&CRITICISM THE JOHNS HOPKINSGUIDE TO LITERARYTHEORY&CRITICISM Second Edition Edited by Michael Groden,Martin Kreiswirth,and Imre Szeman THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS Baltimore and London I994,2005 The Johns Hopkins University PressAll rights reserved.Published 2005 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper98765432 I The Johns Hopkins University Press27I5 North Charles StreetBaltimore,Maryland 2I2I8-4363www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data TheJohns Hopkins guide to literary theory and criticism/edited by Michael Groden,Martin Kreiswirth,and ImreSzeman.—2nd ed. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN o-80I8-80I0-6(alk.paper) I.Criticism—Bio-bibliography.2.Literature—Historyand criticism—Theory,etc.-Bio-bibliography.I.Groden,Michael.II.Kreiswirth,Martin.I.Szeman,Imre,I968-PN8I.J55420048oI'.95'0922—dc2220040438I4 A catalog record for this book is available from the BritishLibrary. CONTENTS Foreword,by Richard MackseyviiPrefacexiiiAcknowledgmentsxvii The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism A L I 575 B 88 M 622 C N 677 I70 D 0 233 7I4 E P 275 72O F 297 R 788 G S 824 409 H T 473 900 I V 5I5 9I6 J W 542 927 K 566 Z 946 List of Entries95IList of Contributors955Index of Names963Index of Topics979 ## FOREWORD by Richard Macksey As this new edition of The Johns Hopkins Guide to LiteraryTheory and Criticism amply demonstrates,literary criticismhas its historical roots in the cultures of classical antiquity.Though foregrounded in contemporary debates,a refer-ence work of this magnitude also clearly reminds us thathowever different the vocabularies and claims to authorityover this long history,the theory and practice of criticismare marked by recurrent basic plot structures.The moststriking of these,and perhaps the most obvious motor forhistorical change,is an insistent need to frame major en-gagements in the form of polemical contests.Thus ourcontemporary strategies can conveniently be traced backto ancient battles. Searching for a plausible point of origin for the strategiesand contests chronicled here,one could turn to a“criticalexchange"embedded within the canon of ancient comedy.Aristophanes won the first prize at the Lenaia of 405 B.C.E.for his comedy The Frogs.We may conveniently take thisdate as the historic inception of literary criticism.This is notto deny that there was an antecedent tradition in the Westof performing and interpreting the Homeric poems(as wellas a just emerging tradition in China of commentingon theConfucian texts).The date has,however,some heuristicvalue in locating a play that concludes in its final agon witha five-round contest between the two heavyweight tragedi-ans,Aeschylus and Euripides,for the minds and hearts ofAthens.The play was itself a part of a civic and poetic con-test in a parlous time,and the historic moment of its per-formance records a number of significant endings,as wellas some equally epochal beginnings. Historically,The Frogs marks the brilliant end of bothAttic Old Comedy and the Athenian politicalimperium (thefinal defeat at Aigospotomai was only months away).Theplay also memorializes the passing of a great cultural insti-tution:the tragic drama.Euripides and the aged Sophocleshad died within the year.(Tragedy's founder,Aeschylus,had died fifty years earlier.)The Frogs presents the comicjourney of an imperfectly disguised Dionysos,patron ofthe drama,to the underworld in search of a civic heroamong the tragedians who can restore virtue and poetry toAthens.The play,despite this sense of belatedness,is also aplace of beginnings:the entrance on the stage of the first New Comedy slave and of extended litera

FAQs

What central idea does the foreword use to explain literary criticism’s origins?

It argues that criticism develops through recurrent polemical contest structures, akin to battles and single combats among competing positions.

Why does the foreword focus on Aristophanes’ The Frogs and its historical context?

It presents The Frogs as a plausible inception point because the play stages a climactic five-round contest over poetic and civic authority between major tragedians.

How does the foreword connect later thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle to this polemical view of criticism?

It describes Plato shaping future critical discourse through agonistic dialogues, and it notes that Aristotle’s Poetics continues the struggle over mimetic arts, sustaining the critical enterprise’s contest-driven character.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Levi