Ralph Cohen

Ralph Cohen was highly regarded as the visionary founding editor of New Literary History, but his own theoretical essays appeared in such a scattering of publications that their conceptual originality, underlying coherence, and range of application have not been readily apparent. This new selection of twenty essays, many published here for the first time, offers a synthesis of Cohen's vital work. In these pages Cohen introduces change and continuity as essential modes of discourse in the study of literary behavior, an approach that can produce reliable narratives of literary, artistic, and cultural change. Here Cohen conceptualizes and develops a compelling, innovative theory of genre that promotes a systematic study of historical change, offering rewarding insights for twenty-first-century scholars.

First published in 1964, The Art of Discrimination is a study in the relation between critical theory and practice, taking as its test-case James Thomson’s The Seasons, the poem which was, according to Johnson, of "a new kind". Professor Cohen explores the different applications of criticism from 1750 to 1950, analysing specific interpretations of the poem that altered, contradicted or supported poetic theory. In doing so, he introduces new techniques to supplement traditional critical commentary: illustrations are treated as interpretations and critical language is related to non-literary as well as literary information. In treating the history of critical interpretation, the reprinting of editions and past interpretations are considered along with contemporary statements as necessary to define a literary period. The book offers alternatives to theories of organicism and to those of the arbitrariness of literary history by defining the kinds of continuities that exist in criticism. As analysis of criticism, it studies how men think about literature, the extent to which such thinking resists systematization and those elements in it which can be controlled and organized and transmitted. The book will appeal to students of literature and critical theory.

First published in 1970, The Unfolding of The Seasons provides an interpretation and evaluation of James Thomson’s poem The Seasons. Professor Cohen urges its reconsideration as a major Augustan poem, arguing that Thomson’s unity, diction and thought combine with a conception of man, nature and God which is poetically tenable and distinctive. The case for The Seasons as an important work of art depends upon its effectiveness as a moving vision of human experience, and Professor Cohen believes that many critics have not felt this effectiveness because they have misconceived Thomson’s vision and misunderstood his idiom. His study aims to persuade them to return to the poem and to examine it within the context of an Augustan tradition. Professor Cohen shows that Thomson’s great achievement is to have fashioned a conception which, by bringing nature to the forefront of his poem, became a new poetic way of defining human experience. Thomson was not the first nature poet in English, but he was the first to provide an effective idiom in which science, orthodox religion, natural description, and classical allusions blended to describe the glory, baseness and uncertainty of man’s earthly environment, holding forth the hope of heavenly love and wisdom. This study shows that Thomson found a personal idiom by means of which he created an artistic vision. It will appeal to those with an interest in English literature and in philosophy.

The aim of this book is to orchestrate “a generic reconstitution of literary studies” based on a comprehensive theory of genre and generic transformation. Taking “An Excellent Ballad of George Barnwel,” a seventeenth-century broadside of sex and greed, Ralph Cohen analyzes the generic transformations—including Addison’s ballad criticism in The Spectator, The London Merchant, Percy’s ballad editing in Reliques, and Barnwell. A Novel—in which this particular ballad exhibits remarkable continuity over the next four centuries, culminating with his personal re-formation; what was considered non-literary criticism becomes literary. This unique literary history reconceives narrative as a component of genre rather than a genre itself, demonstrates the ineluctably mixed nature of genres and the literary nature of our humanness, and analyzes the shifting generic contexts for interpretation and gender relations. Incorporating theory consciousness into the literary genre he is regenerating, Cohen offers a brilliant example of how future literary histories might be written.

The aim of this book is to orchestrate “a generic reconstitution of literary studies” based on a comprehensive theory of genre and generic transformation. Taking “An Excellent Ballad of George Barnwel,” a seventeenth-century broadside of sex and greed, Ralph Cohen analyzes the generic transformations—including Addison’s ballad criticism in The Spectator, The London Merchant, Percy’s ballad editing in Reliques, and Barnwell. A Novel—in which this particular ballad exhibits remarkable continuity over the next four centuries, culminating with his personal re-formation; what was considered non-literary criticism becomes literary. This unique literary history reconceives narrative as a component of genre rather than a genre itself, demonstrates the ineluctably mixed nature of genres and the literary nature of our humanness, and analyzes the shifting generic contexts for interpretation and gender relations. Incorporating theory consciousness into the literary genre he is regenerating, Cohen offers a brilliant example of how future literary histories might be written.

First published in 1964, The Art of Discrimination is a study in the relation between critical theory and practice, taking as its test-case James Thomson’s The Seasons, the poem which was, according to Johnson, of "a new kind". Professor Cohen explores the different applications of criticism from 1750 to 1950, analysing specific interpretations of the poem that altered, contradicted or supported poetic theory. In doing so, he introduces new techniques to supplement traditional critical commentary: illustrations are treated as interpretations and critical language is related to non-literary as well as literary information. In treating the history of critical interpretation, the reprinting of editions and past interpretations are considered along with contemporary statements as necessary to define a literary period. The book offers alternatives to theories of organicism and to those of the arbitrariness of literary history by defining the kinds of continuities that exist in criticism. As analysis of criticism, it studies how men think about literature, the extent to which such thinking resists systematization and those elements in it which can be controlled and organized and transmitted. The book will appeal to students of literature and critical theory.

First published in 1970, The Unfolding of The Seasons provides an interpretation and evaluation of James Thomson’s poem The Seasons. Professor Cohen urges its reconsideration as a major Augustan poem, arguing that Thomson’s unity, diction and thought combine with a conception of man, nature and God which is poetically tenable and distinctive. The case for The Seasons as an important work of art depends upon its effectiveness as a moving vision of human experience, and Professor Cohen believes that many critics have not felt this effectiveness because they have misconceived Thomson’s vision and misunderstood his idiom. His study aims to persuade them to return to the poem and to examine it within the context of an Augustan tradition. Professor Cohen shows that Thomson’s great achievement is to have fashioned a conception which, by bringing nature to the forefront of his poem, became a new poetic way of defining human experience. Thomson was not the first nature poet in English, but he was the first to provide an effective idiom in which science, orthodox religion, natural description, and classical allusions blended to describe the glory, baseness and uncertainty of man’s earthly environment, holding forth the hope of heavenly love and wisdom. This study shows that Thomson found a personal idiom by means of which he created an artistic vision. It will appeal to those with an interest in English literature and in philosophy.

First published in 1964, this book analyses claims and comments that English critics have made about James Thomson’s poem The Seasons (1730-46). Cohen deals with the relation between `practical’ and `philosophical’ criticism of the poem that for over two hundred years has been a model for other poems, has been the subject of books and even paintings, as well as being the legal document in a copyright precedent. Cohen begins with the problems of Thomson’s revisions before moving on to their hypotheses and their transformation, examining the critical tradition and the pressure of the poem. Cohen addresses literary criticism and illustrations of the Seasons as well as diction, style and language. This work will interest the enthusiast of 18th century poetry, giving a careful and thorough history of the reception of James Thomson’s poem.

Ralph Cohen was highly regarded as the visionary founding editor of New Literary History, but his own theoretical essays appeared in such a scattering of publications that their conceptual originality, underlying coherence, and range of application have not been readily apparent. This new selection of twenty essays, many published here for the first time, offers a synthesis of Cohen’s vital work. In these pages Cohen introduces change and continuity as essential modes of discourse in the study of literary behavior, an approach that can produce reliable narratives of literary, artistic, and cultural change. Here Cohen conceptualizes and develops a compelling, innovative theory of genre that promotes a systematic study of historical change, offering rewarding insights for twenty-first-century scholars.

After Dad is an unusual coming-of-age story. Despite his untimely passing, a father continues to mold his three children through the sheer force of his personality, and during critical moments in their lives, he seems to reach out by a number of means-from simple memories of touch and voice, to the telling items he left behind, to a sense of his lingering presence. How the children respond to a father who never quite leaves them shapes their destinies in ways they could not have imagined, and leads to consequences that are as moving as they are transformative. Set mostly in Southern California during the turbulent 1960s, Ralph Cohen's debut novel will take you on a roller coaster ride that reveals the enduring impact we have on those around us long after we are gone." Cohen rarely makes easy, obvious choices for his story, which is at turns heartbreaking and funny. He always has a touching or amusing surprise waiting.... A rewarding read that captures stark, knotty reality and its living, breathing characters." -- Kirkus Reviews