The emergence of literary criticism in 18th-century Britain : discourse between attacks and authority

Description

This study tries, through a systematic and historical analysis of the concept of critical authority, to write a history of literary criticism from the end of the 17th to the end of the 18th century that not only takes the discursive construction of its (self)representation into account, but also the social and economic conditions of its practice. It tries to consider the whole of the critical discourse on literature and criticism in the time period covered. Thus, it is distinctive through its methodology (there is no systematic account of the historical development of critical authority and no discussion of the institutionalization of criticism of such a scope), its material of analysis (most of the many hundred texts self-reflexively commenting on criticism that are discussed here have been so far virtually ignored) and through its results, a complex history of criticism in the 18th century that is neither reductive nor the accumulation of isolated aspects or author figures, but that probes into the very nature of the activity of criticism. The aim of this study is both to provide a thorough historical understanding of the emergence of criticism and as a consequence an understanding of the inner workings and power relations that structure criticism to this day. Frontmatter Pages i-iv Contents Pages V-VI A Note on Texts Pages vii-viii A The Age of Criticism 1 Introduction Pages 3-11 2 Contemporary Discussions of Criticism and the Critic Pages 12-46 B The Authority of Criticism 1 Critical Authority Pages 49-53 2 Aristocratic Authority Pages 54-93 3 The Authority of Seniority: Ancient and Modern Criticism Pages 94-114 4 The Authority of Poetic Genius Pages 115-149 5 Learning: Knowledge between Authority and Pedantry Pages 150-176 6 Rules and the Critic Pages 177-200 7 Taste and the Critic Pages 201-228 8 Name-Authority: The Critic as Institution Pages 229-268 9 Authority and the Marketplace Pages 269-300 10 Institutionalizing Authority: Academies and Reviews Pages 301-356 C Conclusion – Distance and Democracy Distance and Democracy Pages 359-372 Works Cited Pages 373-404 Index Pages 405-410