Difference between revisions of "Empson 1930 Chatto and Windus"
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|abstract=Empson was working in the weeks before his expulsion on what was to be his best-known book, Seven Types of Ambiguity. It is original, startling in places and hugely influential in the teaching of English nowadays not only at university but at school too; and it offers in many ways the intellectual positioning implied by Richards’s more empirical and experimental interest in the processes of reading and understanding. | |abstract=First published in 1930, Seven Types of Ambiguity has long been recognized as a landmark in the history of English literary criticism. Revised twice since it first appeared, it has remained one of the most widely read and quoted works of literary analysis. Ambiguity, according to Mr. Empson, includes “any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language.” From this definition, broad enough by his own admission sometimes to seem “stretched absurdly far,” he launches into a brilliant discussion, under seven classifications of differing complexity and depth, of such works, among others, as Shakespeare’s plays and the poetry of Chaucer, Donne, Marvell, Pope, Wordsworth, G. M. Hopkins, and T. S. Eliot. | ||
Empson was working in the weeks before his expulsion on what was to be his best-known book, Seven Types of Ambiguity. It is original, startling in places and hugely influential in the teaching of English nowadays not only at university but at school too; and it offers in many ways the intellectual positioning implied by Richards’s more empirical and experimental interest in the processes of reading and understanding. | |||
|editor=Gnaiger E | |editor=Gnaiger E | ||
}} | }} | ||
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::::# When a statement says nothing and the readers are forced to invent a statement of their own, most likely in conflict with that of the author. | ::::# When a statement says nothing and the readers are forced to invent a statement of their own, most likely in conflict with that of the author. | ||
::::# Two words that within context are opposites that expose a fundamental division in the author's mind. | ::::# Two words that within context are opposites that expose a fundamental division in the author's mind. | ||
== Book == | |||
::::* https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/seven-types-of-ambiguity-william-empson | |||
{{Labeling | {{Labeling | ||
|additional=Ambiguity crisis | |additional=Ambiguity crisis | ||
}} | }} | ||
Latest revision as of 14:43, 3 March 2024
| Empson W (1930) Seven types of ambiguity. Chatto and Windus, London. |
Empson William (1930) Chatto and Windus
Abstract: First published in 1930, Seven Types of Ambiguity has long been recognized as a landmark in the history of English literary criticism. Revised twice since it first appeared, it has remained one of the most widely read and quoted works of literary analysis. Ambiguity, according to Mr. Empson, includes “any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language.” From this definition, broad enough by his own admission sometimes to seem “stretched absurdly far,” he launches into a brilliant discussion, under seven classifications of differing complexity and depth, of such works, among others, as Shakespeare’s plays and the poetry of Chaucer, Donne, Marvell, Pope, Wordsworth, G. M. Hopkins, and T. S. Eliot.
Empson was working in the weeks before his expulsion on what was to be his best-known book, Seven Types of Ambiguity. It is original, startling in places and hugely influential in the teaching of English nowadays not only at university but at school too; and it offers in many ways the intellectual positioning implied by Richards’s more empirical and experimental interest in the processes of reading and understanding.
• Bioblast editor: Gnaiger E
Seven types
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Types_of_Ambiguity
- We have ambiguity when "alternative views might be taken without sheer misreading."
- The first type of ambiguity is the metaphor, that is, when two things are said to be alike which have different properties. This concept is similar to that of metaphysical conceit.
- Two or more meanings are resolved into one. Empson characterizes this as using two different metaphors at once.
- Two ideas that are connected through context can be given in one word simultaneously.
- Two or more meanings that do not agree but combine to make clear a complicated state of mind in the author.
- When the "author is discovering his idea in the act of writing..." Empson describes a simile that lies halfway between two statements made by the author.
- When a statement says nothing and the readers are forced to invent a statement of their own, most likely in conflict with that of the author.
- Two words that within context are opposites that expose a fundamental division in the author's mind.
Book
Labels:
Ambiguity crisis
