Analysis is a method to decompose all or part of a complex thing into several different components. The opposite of analysis is synthesis.

This method is also suitable for poetry reading and criticism. A poem is generally impossible to be clear at a glance; It needs to be read in several parts. A poem review is generally impossible to brush off; It needs to be evaluated in several parts. This method of reading and commenting is analysis.

First, the history of analytical methods

In Europe, the history of analytical methods can be traced back to ancient Greece. At that time, Plato and Aristotle each proposed an analysis method.

Plato's analytical method advocates dialectical analysis of a concept-that is, through dialogue, various definitions of a concept or all aspects of a problem are verified.

Although Aristotle's analytical method also includes dialectical analysis, its main feature is to generalize on the basis of research examples. This analysis method first explains the first principle of a problem in the form of definition, and then classifies all parts or directions of the problem according to the species system, thus sketching the outline of the problem.

Plato and Aristotle's viewpoints represent two different types of analytical methods: "drama-poetry-intuition" and "experience-science-explanation". The opposition between these two different types of analysis runs through the whole history of poetry criticism.

In the Middle Ages, Plato's and Aristotle's analytical methods were mixed, but Aristotle's analytical methods were dominant. The priest's analysis of religious classics, Dante's analysis of some of his poems, and the analysis of classic works such as Bible and Homer's Epic by researchers in past dynasties are all based on careful study of the text and systematic analysis of the content.

In the history of English literature, Bacon first put forward the idea of establishing a "new induction" (that is, a scientific induction) in New Tools written in Latin (1620). The "new induction" advocated by Bacon is "analyzing experience and breaking it down into several parts". Bacon also advocated distinguishing between the experience gained from "nature itself" and the experience gained from "human mind". Bacon's viewpoint led to the formation of the empiricism-sensualism tradition in the history of English literature. Later, Hobbes and Locke further developed this tradition and had a far-reaching impact on the development of English poetry and poetics.

The viewpoint of "geometric analysis" advocated by Descartes and Spinoza in France has had a very extensive influence on neoclassical literature, art and literary criticism. This influence is reflected in the creation of debating poems and ideological poems at that time, and also in the trend of more rational use of images and metaphors in poems. This influence is more obvious in artistic creation, such as Bach's music creation, Christopher Rehn's architectural design and so on. W Huo Jiasi's Analysis of Beauty (1752) is the main work summarizing the development of this influence in related fields. In this book, Huo Jiasi tries to reduce all kinds of visual beauty to a single factor-line beauty.

The German philosopher Kant clearly distinguished "analytical judgment" and "comprehensive judgment" in his book Critique of Judgment. Kant also went beyond "comprehensive judgment" and put forward "dialectics of criticizing aesthetics according to aesthetic principles". Hegel further developed Kant's dialectics into the synthesis of "analysis and synthesis" and hoped to go beyond the traditional classification of "analysis and synthesis". However, after Hegel, most philosophical and aesthetic comments still maintain the opposite concept of "analysis and synthesis".

Second, the application of analysis in poetry

In a less strict scientific sense, analysis and synthesis are two basic thinking activities of human beings, which exist in all critical work. The specific application of analysis in poetry has the following seven aspects:

1. Language analysis

1852 After the publication of Morrel's "Sentence Analysis and Interpretation", language analysis has become an important method in English and American schools, which also affects poetry reading. A more profound factor is the general trend of English language changing from "comprehensive" inflectional language to "analytical" language (mainly to determine the meaning of words by looking at their positions in sentences). This factor also promotes the application of language analysis in poetry reading.

Then, structural linguistics, semiotics and other linguistic schools also incorporate their language analysis methods into poetry analysis. Another important trend recently is to advocate the application of rhetorical analysis in poetry analysis again.

2. Conceptual analysis

Conceptual analysis was originally a logical process in the field of philosophy. It can be used in poetry analysis in three ways. (1) The definition of the concept, such as Aristotle's definition of "metaphor": "Metaphor refers to referring to another thing by its name; This transformation can be from species to genus, from subordination to species, from species to species, or from heterogeneous analogy. " (2) Critical discussion on concepts such as "nature", "imitation", "romanticism" and "analysis". (3) Historical research on the change of word meaning.

3. Conceptual structure analysis

The "conceptual structure" here refers to the main point system of a literary work, such as the argument system in an argumentative paper and the plot structure in a narrative. Conceptual structure can also be extended to all conceptual systems of a writer, a literary period, a literary movement (such as neoclassicism and imagism) and even a complex historical period.

4. Text analysis

Text analysis refers to criticizing and explaining the text of a work. The text analysis of poetry may encounter some problems similar to the analysis of artistic works such as music and art.

5. Cause analysis

Cause analysis is an indispensable method for biographers and literary historians. There are various understandings about the reasons. The cause view of modern empiricism has been influenced by various scientific developments. For example, Tyne put forward his deterministic analysis of the cause of the incident from the aspects of race, environment and time. On the other hand, Marxist critics associate a certain poetic style with the economic and social conditions that produce this style.

6. Psychoanalysis

Whether referring to Freud's psychoanalysis or other psychological viewpoints, the psychological analysis of poetry must discuss the following three aspects: (1) the psychological factors in the imagination, creative process and aesthetic creation of poetry; (2) The poet's personal psychological state and characteristics; (3) The psychological color of characters or scenes in poetry.

7. Type analysis

This refers to the analysis of literary types. In addition to the above psychological types, we also compare poetry analysis with biology and other types, and apply these types to the study of literary types.

Third, the types of synthesis and analysis

Because any analysis, no matter what kind of classification, has systematic characteristics, the result of analysis will inevitably lead to its opposite-synthesis. In The Basis of Art Criticism (1945), S·G· Pepper outlined four kinds of synthesis-mechanical synthesis, contextual synthesis, organic synthesis and formal synthesis. As for himself, he tends to analyze art with context synthesis, which shows that it is the characteristics of comprehensive methods that determine the characteristics of corresponding analysis methods.

There are many types of analysis, and here are just a few examples to illustrate. Aristotle's analytical method is to decompose a poem into various components according to its logical meaning-object, means and imitation; Plot, characters, thoughts and words; Matter, form and ultimate cause. Plato's analytical method may have taken a similar decomposition, but through dialectical analysis of various concepts, it highlights an all-encompassing concept of "goodness" and puts all other factors in a subordinate position. Neoclassical analysis method harmonizes the above different types of analysis methods with the help of Descartes and Newton's scientific viewpoints. Romanticism emphasizes not only personal characteristics, but also social characteristics and even transcendental characteristics. Therefore, the analysis of romanticism is based on the characteristics of psychological principles, humanitarian values, mysterious expression or symbolic methods to decompose poetry and analyze it. Naturalists try to make their analysis of poetry conform to the objective existence by using evolutionary analysis methods and metaphor usage. Modern pragmatism school or instrumentalism school focuses on exploring the relationship between "means" and "purpose" in poetry. One of the manifestations of this tendency is to regard poetry as a form of exchange of ideas. This theory of "communication form" in turn led to the emergence of a young science-semantics. The semantic school is devoted to the in-depth analysis of language meaning. However, we should also see that some scholars try to synthesize the analytical methods of various factions. For example, I·A· Richards, a famous American modern critic, is a master of romanticism, pragmatism and behaviorism psychoanalysis.

Four. Existing problems and conclusions

Today, in the discussion of poetry analysis, there are still some problems to be solved. For example, in the book Literary Theory (1949), R. Wellek and A. Warren raised the question of "the form of poetry": "What is' real' poetry? Where is it? In what form does it exist? " These two scholars put forward these questions on the basis of distinguishing the "external cause" analysis method and the "internal cause" analysis method of literary criticism. And they themselves tend to analyze "internal factors". However, Wellek's exposition of "internal factors" in literary works is based on Husserl's "phenomenology" theory, which has certain limitations. This is because "phenomenology" only emphasizes the description of various phenomena in all fields of experience, while ignoring the traditional epistemological problems.

Although there are still some unsolved problems in poetry analysis, people can still put forward some conclusive views on poetry analysis.

Although poetry analysis is necessary and meaningful, it is by no means the only purpose. As far as its essence is concerned, poetry is a spiritual wealth for people to experience its aesthetic taste and feast for the eyes. Therefore, the best way to analyze poetry should be to help readers achieve these goals. In fact, in some cases, poetry analysis is unnecessary or does more harm than good. T·S· Eliot pointed out in his speech entitled Frontier of Literary Criticism (1956): "The function of literary criticism is to help readers better understand and appreciate literary works ... If we can't appreciate a poem, then we just don't fully understand it." He also said sarcastically: If British and American literary criticism has been too prosperous in the past 30 years, it is because people have overemphasized analysis.