Fact and Tact

The great scholar‐critic‐editor F. W. Bateson keenly followed Mathew Arnold in linking critical judgement with valuation – distinguishing the ‘best’ from the rest, seeing aesthetic judgement as necessarily involving moral and social assessment, ideological and political consideration. Arnold is clea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inVictorian Poets pp. 160 - 173
Main Author Cunningham, Valentine
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 17.03.2014
Subjects
Felix Randal
Felix Spence
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Mathew Arnold
political consideration
social assessment
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Summary:The great scholar‐critic‐editor F. W. Bateson keenly followed Mathew Arnold in linking critical judgement with valuation – distinguishing the ‘best’ from the rest, seeing aesthetic judgement as necessarily involving moral and social assessment, ideological and political consideration. Arnold is clearly saddened when texts prove incapable of being freshened by new readings. He craves the critical creativity of constant renovation. This creative reading is highly moral. Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem ‘Felix Randal’ is an example which springs instantly to mind when there's any suggestion of how ‘fresh knowledge’ can change (and change at a stroke) the meaning and the reception – the intersubjective existence, as Bateson would put it – of a literary text. There's no doubt that Felix Spence is Hopkins's Felix Randal.
ISBN:9780631199137
0631199136
DOI:10.1002/9781394261123.ch9