EMAIL<\/a> | SYLLABUS<\/a> | POLICIES<\/a> | QUESTIONS<\/a> | PRESENTATIONS<\/a> | JOURNALS<\/a> | PAPER<\/a> | FINAL<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Assigned: \u201cThe Function of Criticism at the Present Time.\u201d (695-714 in Leitch, Vincent B. and William E. Cain, eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.<\/em> 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. ISBN 978-0-393-93292-8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. On 695-96, what is the nature of the \u201ccritical effort\u201d (695), and what, according to Arnold, is the \u201chighest function of man\u201d (696)? How do we know this to be the case? Can criticism fulfill this highest function, or is it the case that only art can do so? Explain how Arnold defends criticism from the harsh charge that it is merely reactive and derivative stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. On 696-98, how does Arnold characterize the \u201ccreative power\u201d (which he also calls \u201cliterary genius\u201d) and the \u201ccritical power\u201d? What relationship does Arnold posit between these two powers? Why can\u2019t there be a truly great period of literary creation without criticism? To what extent is literary genius or the creative power dependent upon the age in which it works?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. On 697-98, while Arnold is setting forth his ideas about the creative and critical powers and the relationship between them, how does he use the English romantic poets as an example of what can go wrong with the exercise of the creative power or genius? That is, what criticism is the Victorian Matthew Arnold making of the much-loved romantics who preceded him by a generation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. On 698-700, how does Arnold analyze the French Revolution? What was the Revolution\u2019s greatest strength, and what was its \u201cgrand error\u201d (700)? How does this analysis of the Revolution relate to Arnold\u2019s claims about the role that intellectual criticism should be playing in Great Britain of his own Victorian Era (1837-1901)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. On 701, how is Edmund Burke\u2019s career, in Arnold\u2019s view, an example of \u201cliving by ideas\u201d and therefore a counterbalance to the errors of the French Revolutionaries? How does Arnold explain his phrase \u201cliving by ideas\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. What notion \u201chardly enters into an Englishman\u2019s thoughts\u201d (702)? How, according to Arnold on 702-04, is this missing notion essential to criticism? How does Arnold define criticism and its goals on these pages, and what role does the key term \u201cdisinterestedness\u201d (713) play in his argument?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. On 704-06, what forces in Victorian life does Arnold identify as getting in the way of Great Britain\u2019s intellectual progress? How does he use the remarks of Sir Charles Adderley and John Arthur Roebuck as examples of such hindrance? Furthermore, what is the basis of Arnold\u2019s complaint on 705-06 about the newspaper headline \u201cWragg is in custody\u201d (705)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. On 706-07, what key objection does Arnold anticipate against his view of British society\u2019s need for disinterested (i.e. unbiased) critical activity? How does he counter this objection, which, as he acknowledges, holds great sway in mid-Victorian England \u2013 what\u2019s to be said to well-intentioned \u201cPhilistines\u201d who insist that everyday life and its hurly-burly way with ideas is the proper way to progress towards \u201ctruth and culture\u201d (707)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. On 707-10, how does Arnold use his tussle over interpretation of Bishop John Colenso\u2019s biblical commentaries as an example of what happens when a cultural critic gets involved in the daily back-and-forth of intellectual affairs? Who became upset with Arnold, and why? What is his response to such critics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. On 711-14, what closing thoughts does Arnold set forth regarding the kind and scope of critical thought that will best help Great Britain going forward? How does Continental Europe\u2019s intellectual production enter into the picture \u2013 why is it so important for the English to broaden their critical web to embrace that production? Does Arnold seem hopeful that his program of disinterested attempts to know the world\u2019s best thoughts will, in fact, make a difference in the real lives of ordinary English people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11. If you have read some of John Stuart Mill\u2019s work (such as his Autobiography,<\/em> or On Liberty<\/em>), how does Matthew Arnold compare to that author in the objects of his social criticism and his way of dealing with them? In what regard might Arnold differ from Mill? (general question)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12. Towards the end of his essay, on 713-14, Matthew Arnold describes his notions of the modern nation\u2019s intellectual life and the educated individual\u2019s place within it. For those who have read T. S. Eliot\u2019s claims about poetry and criticism in \u201cTradition and the Individual Talent,\u201d how might Arnold\u2019s notions be a source for Eliot\u2019s ideas about judging the merits of past literary productions and advocating what\u2019s needed in contemporary art and criticism? (824-25)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MATTHEW ARNOLD QUESTIONS FOR E256 LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISMCHAPMAN UNIVERSITY, FALL 2012 Assigned: \u201cThe Function of Criticism at the Present Time.\u201d (695-714 in Leitch, Vincent B. and William E. Cain, eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. ISBN 978-0-393-93292-8). \u201cThe Function of Criticism at the Present Time\u201d 1. On 695-96, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"wf_page_folders":[18],"class_list":["post-1119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4793,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1119\/revisions\/4793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_page_folders?post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cThe Function of Criticism at the Present Time\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n