Theory of Expressivity:
Expressivity is one of the theories of authorship. It was most in vogue during the Romantic era. Expressivity posits the role of the author as central to the creation of a literary text. It views language as a translation of thoughts, desires, feelings arising primarily within the author. One implication of this theory then, includes viewing language as a copy, an expression, of the inner thoughts and feelings of those who use it. Another implication of this view is that language presupposes two intrinsic, dependent entities of (i) an original idea and, (ii) its formulation or utterance (rough correlation to signifier-signified relationship).
Foucault (all-hail) has suggested that this reflects a larger movement in thought, towards a newer conceptualisation of language and its expression: from 'imitation and duplication of things' (mimesis?) to a direct expression of 'the fundamental will of those who speak it' (Foucault, The Order of Things).
M.H. Abrams's famous analogy of the Mirror and the Lamp explains this in a similar way. Poetic creation which was largely seen as a mirror of society before, is re-conceived as a source of light; as a lamp. This change happens during the 18th century, aided by theorisations of Coleridge, Wordsworth and other champions of Romanticism.
This author-centric view of poetic/linguistic creation however comes under multiple attacks in later times.
Expressivity is one of the theories of authorship. It was most in vogue during the Romantic era. Expressivity posits the role of the author as central to the creation of a literary text. It views language as a translation of thoughts, desires, feelings arising primarily within the author. One implication of this theory then, includes viewing language as a copy, an expression, of the inner thoughts and feelings of those who use it. Another implication of this view is that language presupposes two intrinsic, dependent entities of (i) an original idea and, (ii) its formulation or utterance (rough correlation to signifier-signified relationship).
Foucault (all-hail) has suggested that this reflects a larger movement in thought, towards a newer conceptualisation of language and its expression: from 'imitation and duplication of things' (mimesis?) to a direct expression of 'the fundamental will of those who speak it' (Foucault, The Order of Things).
M.H. Abrams's famous analogy of the Mirror and the Lamp explains this in a similar way. Poetic creation which was largely seen as a mirror of society before, is re-conceived as a source of light; as a lamp. This change happens during the 18th century, aided by theorisations of Coleridge, Wordsworth and other champions of Romanticism.
This author-centric view of poetic/linguistic creation however comes under multiple attacks in later times.
- Modernism insisted on the objectivity (not Wordsworthian spontaneity of emotion) of the author as his (read: Eliot's) paramount virtue.
- Marxism claimed that the author's subjectivity was not as innocent as a bounding roe but was instead shaped by class and economic forces.
- Structuralist and later derivative critical theories rethought language as a discourse and gave it an autonomous position, making the author redundant.
- New Criticism too attacked the author-centric view by denouncing the 'intentional fallacy' or the mistake of giving priority to the author's intent while reading a text.
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