How Form has Become Media——Revisiting Terry Eagleton's Form Criticism
In the book How to Read a Poem,Terry Eagleton proposes a form-centered literary criticism.In his eyes,form can fully build up the"space for dialogue"and predict the meaning it carries.The predictability of meaning,that is,the certainty of effect,can disclose the organic connection between form and media,providing a new perspective in revisiting form and form-based literary criticism.However,this new possibility has insufficient foundations,since the literary context not only appeals to logic,but also stresses perceptual experience.Meanwhile,Terry Eagleton argues that meaning is constructed by society,which is based on"cultural history".Thus,this kind of organic connection can only be established partially in Eagleton's context.In order to revise Eagleton's idea,"hermeneutics"and"digital humanities"will provide a new perspective to revisit form and rebuild form-based literary criticism.
Terry EagletonHow To Read a Poemformmedialiterary criticism