Reconstructing Criticism: Pope's Essay on Criticism and the Logic of Definition - Hardcover

Smallwood, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0838755445 ISBN 13: 9780838755440

Publisher: Bucknell University Press,U.S., 2003

Synopsis

This study aims to bring the modern theory of literary criticism, and Pope's 'Essay on Criticism' of 1711, into a more productive and intersting association than critical-historical structures have generally allowed. Smallwood marks out in current terms and in depth the specialized theoretial and aesthetic problem of defining criticism. He recognizes that criticism, no more than literature or art, cannot be finally codified or defined, but insists on the need for clarity in the exposition of criticism's purposes and a fuller consciousness of a common community of practice available to audiences outside the academic fold. Affirming the unfailing currency and utility of the term "criticism" as new languages have taken over the critical domain, or have sought to replace or abolish "literature," Smallwood distinguishes between the normative definitions that are everywhere apparent in modern theory of criticism, and the advantages to conceptual comprehension achieved by Pope's poetic idea of criticism in the 'Essay'.

About this title

About the Author

Philip Smallwood is Professor of English at the University of Central England.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bucknell University Press,U.S.
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0838755445
• ISBN 13: 9780838755440
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232