Best theory & literature Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Literary theory has become a parody of science, generating its own arcane jargon. In the process, tragically, it discourages love of literature for its own sake.”

Literature Process Theory Sake Discouraging Parody Jargon Arcane Literary Theory

Author:Nancy Pearcey

“In my profession more generally, it's not an exaggeration to say that masculinity is viewed as the root of all evil. If you were to take a literary theory course, you might think it would be about literature, but it's really not. It's about all the various forms of oppression on earth and how we can see them playing out in literary works. And behind all these forms of oppression is a guy.”

Ifs Thinking Might Would Be Earth Form Guy Courses Evil Literature Behinds Theory Roots Various Profession Oppression Masculinity Exaggeration Literary Works Literary Theory

Author:Jonathan Gottschall

“A masterly analysis of how political interests, economic circumstances, development strategies, and local history have shaped what are surprisingly different versions of the welfare state across the developing world. The authors combine fine-grained country analyses with intelligent use of data, and explain and extend the theory and literature on the modern welfare state. The book is both scholarly and readable.”

“A rare book at once of great importance and wonderful to read.... Gould presents a fascinating historical study of scientific racism, tracing it through monogeny and polygeny, phrenology , recapitulation, and hereditarian IQ theory. He stops at each point to illustrate both the logical inconsistencies of the theories and the prejudicially motivated, albeit unintentional, misuse of data in each case.... A major addition to the scientific literature.”

Book Literature Cases Study Wonderful Theory Majors Racism Importance Historical Data Fascinating Logical Motivated Misuse Inconsistency Tracing Phrenology Recapitulation

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“Universities are an example of organizations dominated wholly by intellectuals; yet, outside pure science, they have not been an optimal milieu for the unfolding of creative talents. In neither art, music, literature, technology and social theory, nor planning have the Universities figured as originators or as seedbeds of new talents and energies.”

Art Literature Energy Social Technology Creative Talent Example Theory Pure Organization University Planning Unfolding Optimal Art Music Milieu New Talent Social Theory

Author:Eric Hoffer

“No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.”

Use Literature Conditions Theory Goes On Permit

Author:Andre Gide

“What was needed was a literary theory which, while preserving the formalist bent of New Criticism, its dogged attention to literature as aesthetic object rather than social practice, would make something a good deal more systematic and 'scientific' out of all this. The answer arrived in 1957, in the shape of the Canadian Northrop Fryes mighty 'totalization' of all literary genres, Anatomy of Criticism .”

Literature Social Answers Deals Attention Practice Objects Theory Needed Shapes Criticism Genre Aesthetic Bent Systematic Anatomy Literary Theory Literary Genre

Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction

Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction

“The theory of politics that emerges from the political literature of the pre-Revolutionary years rests on the belief that what lay behind every political scene, the ultimate explanation of every political controversy, was the disposition of power.”

Years Political Literature Belief Behinds Theory Scene Ultimate Lays Revolutionary Explanation Disposition Controversy

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.”

Life Literature Tree Theory Spring Green Aging Dear Golden Gray Dear Friend Tree Of Life

Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Nothing, except the weather report or a general maxim of conduct, is so unsafe to rely upon as a theory of fiction.”

Literature Fiction Theory Weather Rely Reports Maxims Unsafe Rely Upon

Book:Works

Source: Works

“Doesn't the theory of relativity concern literature too? In our world there is no longer any room for the privileged observer, as there is none for the observer of the universe - we are all within.”

World Universe Literature Rooms Theory Concern Our World Privileged Observers Relativity Theories Of Relativity

Author:Nina Berberova

“The ambition of much of today's literary theory seems to be to find ways to read literature without imagination.”

Way Seems Today Literature Imagination Theory Ambition Literary Theory

Book:The Monster Loves His Labyrinth

Source: The Monster Loves His Labyrinth

“At the other end of the spectrum is, for example, graph theory, where the basic object, a graph, can be immediately comprehended. One will not get anywhere in graph theory by sitting in an armchair and trying to understand graphs better. Neither is it particularly necessary to read much of the literature before tackling a problem: it is of course helpful to be aware of some of the most important techniques, but the interesting problems tend to be open precisely because the established techniques cannot easily be applied.”

Trying Important Ends Problem Courses Literature Interesting Example Objects Theory Sitting Mathematics Technique Helpful Spectrum Tackling Armchairs Graphs

Author:Timothy Gowers

“In the course of a life devoted less to living than to reading, I have verified many times that literary intentions and theories are nothing more than stimuli and that the final work usually ignores or even contradicts them.”

Courses Reading Literature Theory Intention Finals Devoted Stimulus

Author:Jorge Luis Borges

“Fourteen years in the professor dodge has taught me that one can argue ingeniously on behalf of any theory, applied to any piece of literature. This is rarely harmful, because normally no-one reads such essays.”

Years Literature Education Pieces Taught Theory Arguing Professors Essays Behalf Fourteen Dodge

Author:Robert B. Parker

“With a few exceptions, the critics of children's books are remarkably lenient souls.... Most of us assume there is something goodin every child; the critics go from this to assume there is something good in every book written for a child. It is not a sound theory.”

Children Book Soul Literature Sound Written Theory Criticism Assuming Critics Exception Children's Books Literary Criticism Children's Literature Lenient

Author:Katharine Sergeant Angell White

“A popular feel for scientific endeavors should, if possible, be restored given the needs of the twenty-first century. This does not mean that every literature major should take a watered-down physics course or that a corporate lawyer should stay abreast of quantum mechanics. Rather, it means that an appreciation for the methods of science is a useful asset for a responsible citizenry. What science teaches us, very significantly, is the correlation between factual evidence and general theories, something well illustrated in Einstein's life.”

Source: Einstein: His Life and Universe

“I try to tell student writers to read as much as possible, not only literature but philosophy, theory, and to form obsessions. There's a big taboo in fiction creative writing workshops against using the self at all, and I think I try to encourage students to write the self, but to connect the self to something larger, which is to be this thinking, seeing, searching, eternally curious person, and that writing can come out of investigating and trying to understand confusion, and doubts, and obsessions.”

“I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to literature and theory. I wish I could have more of that in life, but I don't because I'm always reading scripts or things to prepare for movies when I'm reading.”

Kind Reading Literature Wish Theory Scripts Nerd

Author:Elizabeth Olsen

“Criticism can be wonderful, especially in making connections in an interpretive way. But by applying theories randomly, it's an interesting exercise, but I don't think it illuminates the literature.”

Thinking Way Literature Interesting Wonderful Theory Exercise Criticism Connections

Author:T.C. Boyle

“The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.”

Men Children Long Seems Literature Taken Theory Failure Succeed Devil

Author:H. L. Mencken

“In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it, the ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with Time in one's life.”

Life Doe Seems Earth Moving Science Time Literature Practice Theory Perceive

Book:In Search of Lost Time: Or

Source: In Search of Lost Time: Or

“He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.”

People World Literature Religious Theory Ugly Agony Walt Religious Life

Author:J. D. Salinger

“Life is so unlike theory.”

Life Funny Life Is Literature Theory Funny Life

Author:Anthony Trollope

“I have a theory about the human mind. A brain is a lot like a computer. It will only take so many facts, and then it will go on overload and blow up.”

Mind Humans Facts Literature Brain Theory Goes On Computer Blow Human Mind Overload

Author:Erma Bombeck

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