15: A Discourse on Literature

Welcome to the fifteenth episode of A History of Literary Criticism, a podcast about the history of literary criticism. Today’s episode concerns Ts’ao P’i’s A DIscourse on Literature. A fairly standard structure today: social and cultural context and then the summary of P’i’s work is divided according to the points of Abrams’ triangle: first, Ts’ao P’i’s thoughts on the artist, then the text, then the world. Significantly, no discussion of the reader, haha. In the conclusion, I’ll discuss how Ts’ao P’i’s positions align, or not, with the other theorists we’ve discussed so far.