Poulet’s Criticism Based on the Mixing of Consciousness of Criticism and Writer’s Consciousness

Being influence by Gaston Bachelard’s ideas and theories and the founders of Geneva school, thematic criticism came into being before structuralism in opposition to the academic-traditional criticism. Jeorge Poulet is one of the critics of this approach whose method is based on the wholehearted sympathy of the critic with the author. The critic, therefore, along with an adventure in the inner world of the author, connects his own consciousness with that of the author, so that the text turns to be a mirror to the inner world of the critic. This article, after examining the roots of thematic criticism, points out to the task of criticism from Poulet’s point of view, and then it will discuss that Poulet’s criticism is based on a search for cogito or the prior consciousness of the self in different authors. Finally it will just raise this basic question: is it viable to apply thematic criticism to other areas?