Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/30002
Title: The connection between literature and aesthetics : is it problematic?
Authors: Attard, Josette
Keywords: Literature -- Aesthetics
Aesthetics
Lamarque, Peter, 1948- -- Criticism and interpretation
Issue Date: 2018
Publisher: University of Malta. Junior College
Citation: Attard, J. (2018). The connection between literature and aesthetics : is it problematic? Symposia Melitensia, 14, 79-90
Abstract: Most literary critics are reluctant to accept the relevance of aesthetics to literature. This paper aims to show how aesthetics can be related to literature in terms of values, among other concepts. The aesthetic experience and the aesthetic value of literature have long been discussed resulting in many divergent theories from philosophers in general and aestheticians in particular. This paper revisits Peter Lamarque’s objections to the connection between aesthetics and literature and argues for and against these objections, referring to accounts written by several philosophers, amongst whom Monroe C. Beardsley, Robert Stecker, Noël Carroll, and Kendall Walton. I claim that the connection between aesthetics and literature is possible if a literary genre is transformed into an experience which is mostly subjective, and generates aesthetic values which, on the other hand, are more objective and universal. As Lamarque claims, literary critics seem to emphasize more the instrumental values of literature than its more purely intrinsic values. Moreover, they keep away as much as possible from value judgments of any kind. All this seems to separate literature from aesthetics. There are common factors, however, such as aesthetic pleasure and aesthetic vocabulary, which are used by both aestheticians and literary critics, proving that literature holds a strong place in contemporary aesthetics. Most aestheticians regard literature, especially poetry, as one of the arts. However, the most common issues that philosophers write about are the cognitive and ethical values of literature. Such debates lack the literary and hence the aesthetic aspect of literature. It is not so obvious that when philosophers write about literature, they are really engaged in aesthetics. This paper focuses on whether the concept of aesthetics of literature really connects aesthetics to literature and, more precisely, on which criteria make literary works suitable for aesthetic evaluation? The key to these questions lies in the aesthetic experience of pleasure.
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/30002
ISSN: 1812-7509
Appears in Collections:Scholarly Works - JCMal
SymMel, 2018, Volume 14
SymMel, 2018, Volume 14

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