A Companion to Literary Evaluation

The first critical survey of its kind devoted solely to literary evaluation Companion to Literary Evaluation bridges the gap between the non-academic literary world, where evaluation is deeply ingrained, and the world of academia, where evaluation is rarely considered. Encouraging readers to formulate and articulate arguments that balance instinctive judgment and reasoned assessment, this unique volume addresses key issues regarding literary values from the perspective of analytical aesthetics and the philosophy of literature. Bringing together a diverse panel of contributors, the Companion explores competing theories of literary evaluation, the reasons for evaluating theater and lyric poetry in performance, the question of value in literary theory, debates over Modernism's negative impact on literature, the possibility of evaluating aesthetic beauty through scientific and formalist methods, the nature and status of literary evaluation as a branch of criticism, aesthetics in applied and community theater, evaluation outside academia, the perils of extreme relativism and subjectivism in literary evaluation, evaluation in schools and much more. Contributors question and reassess the reputations of authors across the canon, from Shakespeare and James Shirley to T S Eliot, Kathleen Raine, Virginia Woolf, Joyce and Beckett amongst others. The Companion: Illustrates how seemingly divergent perspectives on the artistic qualities and value of literature can sometimes overlap Covers the standard range of literary genres, while including others such as unfinished novels, freelance journalism, and lyric poetry in performance Offers methodologies that demonstrate why literature can be treated as something different from other forms of language and therefore assessed as art Explores the importance of maintaining clarity and specificity in the evaluation of literary works Companion to Literary Evaluation is a must-read for undergraduates, research students, lecturers, and academics in search of fresh perspectives on standard literary critical issues.

Notes on Contributors vii Introduction 1 Richard Bradford 1 Literary Values 8 Peter Lamarque 2 Complexity as a Criterion for the Evaluation of Literature 42 Anja Müller-Wood 3 Schooled Aesthetic Asymmetries: (Back)firing the Canon in Secondary Education 57 D.J. Howells 4 Defining Literature: The Route to Aesthetic Evaluation 76 Paolo Euron 5 Kathleen Raine: The Less Received 92 Andrew Keanie 6 "Is (This) Translation Any Good?": The Evaluation of Literary Translation 110 Giuseppe Sofo 7 The Algorithm of Beauty: Aesthetic Judgment as a Science 120 Madelena Gonzalez 8 Literary Value and the Question of Insight on Humanly Relevant Matters 135 Emanuela Tegla 9 How Books Get Reviewed: Evaluation and the Freelance Journalist 150 D.J. Taylor 10 A Lifetime of Evaluation 156 Penelope Stenning 11 Evaluating Unfinished Novels: Octavia E. Butler and the Improbability of Justice 166 Rafe McGregor 12 "How to Bring So Goode a Matter into a Better Forme": The Value of the Horse in Early Modern Writing 179 Elisabetta Deriu 13 Reading Performance for the Values Underpinning Production 195 Amanda Finch 14 Bridging the Gap between Page and Performance Poetry 212 Karen Simecek 15 Aesthetics and Efficacy in Applied and Community Theater 226 Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill 16 Antonin Artaud Beyond Judgment: A Radio Reading of "To Have Done With The Judgement of God" with Local Prisoners 243 Gary Anderson and Niamh Malone 17 "Chief of the Second Rate": James Shirley and Dramatic Value 259 Heidi Craig 18 "The Glories of our Blood and State" and The Lady of Pleasure: The Genius of [Counterfactual] Britain's National Writer—James Shirley 271 Kevin De Ornellas 19 Evaluating Literary Evaluation 287 Peter Barry 20 The Horrible Legacy of Modernism 299 Richard Bradford 21 Evaluating Poems 331 Amy Burns and Richard Bradford Index 346