The Emergence of Literary Criticism in 18th-Century Britain : : Discourse between Attacks and Authority / / Sebastian Domsch.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Complete English Language 2000-2014 PART1
• VerfasserIn: Domsch, Sebastian,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Buchreihe der Anglia / Anglia Book Series , 47
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (410 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- A Note on Texts -- A The Age of Criticism -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Contemporary Discussions of Criticism and the Critic -- B The Authority of Criticism -- 1 Critical Authority -- 2 Aristocratic Authority -- 3 The Authority of Seniority: Ancient and Modern Criticism -- 4 The Authority of Poetic Genius -- 5 Learning: Knowledge between Authority and Pedantry -- 6 Rules and the Critic -- 7 Taste and the Critic -- 8 Name-Authority: The Critic as Institution -- 9 Authority and the Marketplace -- 10 Institutionalizing Authority: Academies and Reviews -- C Conclusion – Distance and Democracy -- Distance and Democracy -- Works Cited -- Index