The idea that there cannot be an ideology in literature is in itself an ideology called liberal humanism. Liberal humanism was based on the idea that one should study literature for its own sake because it was enriching. The humanists Walter Pater and Matthew Arnold both wrote about literature at a time when the suffrage movement was yet to happen.
Walter Pater – The Renaissance
Walter Pater extolled the concept of art for art’s sake in his book The Renaissance. He wrote that “the love of art for art’s sake, has most; for art comes to you professing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments sake”.
Matthew Arnold – Culture and Anarchy
Matthew Arnold was a nineteenth-century poet and a literary and cultural critic, who sought to defend art on the basis of what art can do to society and culture. He was the first cultural critic who claimed that to speak about literature one has to speak about culture.
Matthew Arnold proposed that philosophy and religion would be "replaced by poetry" in modern society. He held that culture representing “the best that has been thought and said in the world” was available through literature and enhances man.
Matthew Arnold saw culture as the moral attributes to literature, which could mount a humanist defense against the destructive anarchy: the moral chaos brought about in the industrial age. Arnold stresses that only the best poetry will have the power of the criticism of life. According to Arnold, poetry has the unique power of making sense of life, and culture allows us "to grow", become more complete and better human beings.
Arnold had a very intransigent view about what a work of art should be. His view was that a classic should form public taste rather than be formed by public taste. However, Arnold does not consider the possibility that what is "the best" for one age might not be "the best" for another, or that what within a given period is "the best" for one party — e.g. aristocracy — is not necessarily the best for another — e.g. peasants.
F. R. Leavis – The Great Tradition
F. R. Leavis was profoundly influenced by Matthew Arnold and he established the canon of English Literature to identify the great works of literature. According to Leavis, the canon of English Literature assists in promoting humanistic values against the forces of industrialization. However, his dubious critical judgment on what constitutes the great works of literature, along with the moral aspect of literature was called into question.
Read more about Literary English Studies and Critical Theory on Suite 101:
- Realism and Naturalism in Literature
- Virginia Woolf and the Modernist Movement in Literature
- Marxist Theory: Marxism, Literature, and Ideology
- Louis Althusser: Ideology and Literature
- Literary Theory: An Introduction to Russian Formalism
- Literary Theory: The Characteristics of Russian Formalism
- Structuralist Theories: A Very Short Introduction
- Roman Jakobson: The Metaphoric and the Metonymic Texts
- Roland Barthes and Post-Structuralism
List of Works Cited:
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999.
Pater, Walter. The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry. Ed. Adam Phillips. Oxford: Oxford U.P, 1986.
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