Table Of ContentThe Definition of Literature
TheD efinitioofn
Literature
and other essays
W.W. Robson
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To Anne and Hugh
Contents
Preface page viii
Bibliographical note ix
1 The Definition of Literature 1
2 On Liberty of Interpreting 20
3 Evaluative Criticism, and Criticism without Evaluation 40
4 The Novel: a Critical Impasse? 57
5 The Sea Cook: a Study in the Art of Robert
Louis Stevenson 79
6 On Kidnapped 97
7 On The Wind in the Willows
8 The Present Value of Tennyson
9 Robert Frost
10 Hopkins and Literary Criticism
11 T. S. Eliot: a Poet's Notebook
12 I. A. Richards
13 Yvor Winters: Counter-romantic
vii
Preface
Recent attempts to make literary criticism more 'rigorous' have
sometimes only succeeded in alienating it from many authors and
readers. The discussions that follow are written in what I hope
is plain and straightforward language. But I concede to the
rigorists that plain and straightforward language can beg ques
tions and gloss over problems, and I have tried to avoid this by
being as fully explicit as possible about the standards, criteria,
and methods which I favour. I believe that this is the only
permissible way of arguing about literary questions at a time
when there.is so much disagreement about matters of principle.
The first four essays deal with general questions. In 'The
Definition of Literature' I have attempted, not to fix on a specific
formulation, but to decide what kind of definition is preferable.
'On Liberty of Interpreting' examines the much-canvassed ques
tion of the relevance or otherwise of authorial intentions to
criticism. Its purpose is to bring out what seems true in both
'intentionalism' and 'anti-intentionalism ', and to discard what
in both seems false. 'Evaluative Criticism, and Criticism without
Evaluation' argues that one widely favoured account of literary
appraisal is in fact empty. 'The Novel: a Critical Impasse?' raises
a general problem about prose fiction. It may serve as an intro
duction to the three following essays, which discuss some famous
novels in detail. A contrasting kind of approach is used in the
essays on Tennyson and Frost, which survey a writer's work
as a whole. The last four discussions adopt one more method of
considering literary questions, through the study of what some
distinguished poets have thought about them.
My general aim has been to take conversation about prose and
poetry out of the limited and specialised 'literary' or 'academic'
world in which it so often takes place, and to turn it towards the
broader world of thought which is shared by all reflective people,
whoever and wherever they are.
I am grateful to Mr Michael Black for his invaluable help in
the selection and preparation of these essays.
W.W.R.
viii
Bibliographical note
'The Definition of Literature', 'On Liberty of Interpreting',
'Evaluative Criticism, and Criticism without Evaluation', and
'The Novel: a Critical Impasse?' have not been published before.
'The Sea Cook: a Study in the Art of Robert Louis Stevenson' is
n the Novel,
revised from an essay that appeared in O ed. B. S.
1971.
Benedikz, Dent,
Kidnapped' Stevenson and Victorian Scotland,
'On appeared in
1981.
ed. Jenni Calder, Edinburgh University Press,
The Wind in the Willows' The Hebrew
'On appeared in
University Studies in Literature, vol. 9, no. 1, Spring 1981.
'The Present Value of Tennyson' was the Sir Charles Tennyson
centenary lecture, delivered 31 October 1978. It appeared in
Studies in Tennyson, 1981.
ed. Hallam Tennyson, Macmillan,
The Southern Review, 1966.
'Robert Frost' appeared in Autumn
'Hopkins and Literary Criticism' was the Hopkins Annual
1974, 1974.
Lecture for published by the Hopkins Society,
The Litera.ry Criticism
'T. S. Eliot: a Poet's Notebook' appeared in
T. S. Eliot, 1977.
of ed. D. Newton de Molina, Athlone Press,
The Times Literary Supplement,
'I. A. Richards' appeared in
26 1970.
February
'Yvor Winters: Counter-romantic' is based on material that
appeared in Essays in Criticism, vol. xxv, no. 1, January 1975.
ix
