M. H. Abrams
M. H. Abrams
Meyer Howard "Mike" Abrams, usually cited as M. H. Abrams, was an American literary critic, known for works on romanticism, in particular his book The Mirror and the Lamp. Under Abrams's editorship, The Norton Anthology of English Literature became the standard text for undergraduate survey courses across the U.S. and a major trendsetter in literary canon formation...
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth23 July 1912
classical free ideas pagan rather religious secular thinkers work
Secular thinkers have no more been able to work free of the centuries-old Judeo-Christian culture than Christian theologians were able to work free of their inheritance of classical and pagan thought. The process... has not been the deletion and replacement of religious ideas but rather the assimilation and reinterpretation of religious ideas.
appealed boys romantics whipping
The Romantics were whipping boys of the New Criticism, but they appealed to me anyway. I was recalcitrant. It was clear to me that they had thought innovatively.
jews western
Jews had an outsider's eye on a lot of Western tradition.
I was never a monist - always a diversitarian.
believed history understand
We believed that to understand literature, you had to understand its place in history and culture.
criterion looking nature pass poem test
The first test any poem must pass is no longer, 'Is it true to nature?' but a criterion looking in a different direction: namely, 'Is it sincere? Is it genuine?'