Matthew Arnold’s Reception of Hippolyte Taine: Lord Byron as “Touchstone”
Resource
NTU Studies in Language and Literature, 27, 025-046
Journal
NTU Studies in Language and Literature
Journal Issue
27
Pages
025-046
Date Issued
2012-06
Date
2012-06
Author(s)
Chien, J.P.
Abstract
The reception of Hippolyte Taine in Victorian England features as one of the crucial
incidents in the context of its rich and diversified cross-cultural literary
historiography—Taine’s book on History of English Literature changed the way of
talking about the Romantic School in the anglophone world. In particular, the
Frenchman’s representation of Byron catalyzed Matthew Arnold’s canonization of
the Romantic poet. It is argued that there was a touchstone effect that mediates as
well as displaces Arnold’s critical position of Byron. This essay begins by giving a
survey of English readers’ immediate reception of Taine, and then it focuses on the
interchange between Arnold and Taine with regard to the image of Byron. Unlike
other English critics who dismiss Taine’s work, Arnold on the one hand draws on
the Frenchman’s perception, and on the other consolidates his touchstone theory as
a strategy of reading, resulting in a revision of the concepts of literary criticism and
canon. His efforts not only justify the value of Taine’s work but also the position of
Byron in the canon of English literature.
Subjects
《英國文學史》、泰納、阿諾德、拜倫、文學批評、典範、試金石
History of English Literature, Hippolyte Taine, Matthew Arnold, Lord
Byron, literary criticism, canon, touchstone
Byron, literary criticism, canon, touchstone
Type
journal article
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