コールリッジの語ったこと : 『文学評伝』(1817)

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  • コールリッジ ノ カタッタ コト ブンガク ヒョウデン 1817
  • What Coleridge Talked : The Biographia Literaria (1817)

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Departmental Bulletin Paper

It would be true that talking critically of Coleridge's Biographia Literaria is almost equivalent to saying something about the relationships between the author and Wordsworth. It is also correct in thinking that the work is a kind of counterstatement to Wordsworth's writings. But these interpretations, which have been provided by many critics, are not enough to develop a comprehensive understanding. The Biographia exists based on Coleridge's multiple relations to the contemporary literary situation, himself, Wordsworth, and "oral cultures." Of those, the relationship between Coleridge and Wordsworthis central, but interrelationship of those four is more important because they cooperate to determine both the content and mode of the work. Through the analysis of these relations, especially those with Coleridge himself and "oral cultures," the Biographia appears to be different from a simple autobiography which concerns the public figure of the author or an earnest defense against censures from the literary circle. Considering its abundant characteristics stemming from "oral cultures" and the importance of Wordsworth as a counterpart of the author in the work, it presents itself as an autobiographical open letter to the poet. There Coleridge "talked." about himself to compete with Wordsworth, in the public field, as a philosophical literary critic. More importantly, then, this feature is where the work's significant originality derives from. The Biographia is not only an anti-Romantic autobiography, but also realizes an entirely new mode of the genre which represents a "private" figure of the author depending on the real personal relationship between himself and Wordsworth.

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