In this article the outlines are sketched of an empirical science of literature as close as possible to the model of the natural sciences. This raises the question of what the standards of an ...empirical science in the strictest sense should generally be. Practical relevance of its results soon turns up as the fundamental condition for an explanatory empirical science, if the ideology of nearing an empirical truth is no longer accepted and a mere pragmatic justification rejected as its insufficient substitute. As a consequence the logical priority of scientific explanation over scientific description is considered irrefutable. The so-called "sciences of understanding" - among them a "science of literature" - are confronted with a special difficulty, if they want to become explanatory empirical sciences. Their practical problems to be solved are related to linguistically or semiotically coded facts. To empirically describe these problematic facts causes this difficulty, which the author tries to overcome with recourse to ideas from Wittgenstein. And the practical relevance, which may be achieved with the help of nomological explanations, here doesn't consist in predictions for better practical production of means, direct or indirect, for survival, but in the provision of rational understanding for better practical teaching or criticism. This practical relevance is shown in the explanation of valuing acts of readers of The Golden Bowl by Henry James. The meaning of a literary text is no longer taken as a possible object of scientific empirical explanation, nor its rational justification as a scientific goal that might be practically relevant.
•Extratextual critical reviews and textual excerpts were integrated in evaluation.•A negative review from a literary expert had an effect prior to the excerpt.•A positive review from a peer had an ...effect after the excerpt.•Process orienting was implicated when the review was read first.•Evaluation adjustment was implicated when the review was read second.
An experiment was run to determine the effect of critical reviews on readers’ evaluation of literary works. We hypothesized that there are two mechanisms by which extratextual information can have an effect on evaluation: orienting, in which processing is directed to different aspects of the text by the extratextual information, and adjustment, in which the summary evaluation is changed based on how others have evaluated the work. Subjects either read a review of a work and then an excerpt from that work or first read the excerpt and then the review. In both experiments, the review had a substantial impact on reader evaluations, showing that readers combined textual and the extratextual, critical review information to form an evaluation of a literary work. However, when the review was read prior to the excerpt, this effect was mediated by the source of the review: the effect was found only for an expert source. In contrast, when the review was read after the excerpt, a larger effect was found for a peer source. Based on this differential effect, we suggest that expert pre-excerpt reviews orient readers to consider certain classes of information, while peer post-excerpt reviews lead readers to adjust their evaluation.
In this paper, we argue that the long-term evaluation of literary texts rather privileges their formal and structural aspects, but to a lesser degree the content. As external and internal reasons for ...literary evaluation are distinguished, the latter are privileged while the former will only last as the themes and the external reasons remain, which means they are transient and do not lead to long-term evaluation of literary products. At the same time, it is the second type of internal reasons – the form and structure of a literary work – that plays a role and contributes to canon formation. Hence we present the results of some experiments in which two different groups of participants (university students and older people in a convenience sample) in two cultural settings read three texts (one popular fiction and two canonical ones) several times and answered the three questions derived from the “rereading paradigm” by Bortolussi & Dixon (2003). As an additional measure to check the participants reading habits, in Study 1 the ART test from Stanovich et al. (1995), adapted for a Ukrainian audience, was employed. The results, which did not corroborate the predictions, are discussed and confronted with some insights into the theory of literary evaluation.
A revaluation of Eben Venter’s Wolf, wolf within the context of his oeuvreGenerally well-received in Afrikaans and South African literary criticism and far from completely undervalued in terms of ...literary prizes, the work of Afrikaans author Eben Venter is, however, in need of reappraisal. Some important literary accolades still evade him, despite the generally accepted merits of his writing, most notably his bold engagement with South African reality (viewed also with an international lens) and his engaging exploration of style. His most recent novel Wolf, wolf (2013) received mostly positive reviews in South Africa and was awarded the first KykNet/Rapport Book Prize, but Venter himself was rather disappointed with the local reception as compared to the greater enthusiasm with which the English translation has been welcomed abroad on account of its close examination of highly relevant topics such as the relationship between autocratic father and (gay) son, the rise of social media and, in particular, pornography addiction. In this article I attempt a revaluation of Wolf, wolf within the context of Venter’s oeuvre.Gegewe die relatiewe onderwaardering in Suid-Afrika van Eben Venter se jongste roman Wolf, wolf, veral ten opsigte van literêre pryse – wat ook iets van die ontvangs van sy werk oor die algemeen illustreer – word in hierdie artikel gepoog om hierdie roman binne die konteks van Venter se oeuvre te herevalueer. Met verwysing na Julia Kristeva (1980) se essay “From one identity to an other” word aangetoon hoe die spanning tussen die “simboliese” orde van die vader (se taal) en die instinkmatige “semiotiese” aspek van taal in Wolf, wolf uitspeel deur die teleskopering van die verhouding tussen die streng, heteronormatiewe Benjamin Duiker en sy pornografie-verslaafde gay seun Mattheüs, wat hy van jongs af half in- en half uitsluit, en uiteindelik dan ook (ten dele) uit sy testament laat. Daar word voorts ondersoek ingestel na hoe ’n verdere dialektiese relasie wat Kristeva (1980) uitlig, naamlik tussen die nabootsende “retorikus” en die onafhanklike “stilis”, in die ontwikkeling van Venter se werk na vore kom, met Wolf, wolf as kulminasiepunt waarin die stilis seëvier. Die wolfmotief is in ’n resensie van Crous (2013) as ongemotiveerd beskryf, maar dís juis die punt: die wolf(motief) as vernaamste manifestasie van die semiotiese in hierdie roman bedreig die orde, ook dié van die roman, en suggereer op ʼn manier wat Foucault (1978) oproep maar ook aan hom verbystreef, dat seksualiteit, of sekere uitdrukkings of aspekte daarvan, uiteindelik dalk nie gereguleer en beheer kan word nie, in praktyk en diskursief – spesifiek in hierdie digitale era. Pornografie as taboe-onderwerp, in samehang met die wolfmotief, markeer dus op ʼn treffende manier die meer algemene tema van in- en uitsluiting wat in hierdie roman op die voorgrond gestel word.
Hierdie artikel is 'n kritiese ondersoek na aspekte van die literêre pryse van die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns. Hoewel gekonsentreer word op enkele omstrede literêre ...prystoekennings (soos dié van die Hertzogprys) in die verlede, word die samestelling en funksionering van die Letterkundekommissie én die reglemente van die verskillende pryse ook onder die loep geneem. In die proses word 'n kort oorsig gegee van literêre pryse in internasionale verband en kritiek wat geopper is ten aansien van literêre pryse en toekennings, veral die moontlikheid van subtiele sensuur waar die staat as borg optree en ander vorme van manipulering waar die borge van sodanige pryse en toekennings ekonomiese belange daarby het, byvoorbeeld versekeringsmaatskappye, bierbrouerye, en dergelike meer. In die tweede helfte van die artikel word enkele van die genoemde omstrede Hertzogprystoekennings in historiese konteks geëvalueer en bevind dat in die meeste gevalle die oordele van Die Akademie die toets van die tyd deurstaan het. A critical assessment of the literary prizes awarded by The South-African Academy for Science and Arts The literary prizes awarded annually by Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (The South African Academy for Science and Arts) are widely recognized as prestigious awards. The Hertzog prize for literature is in pecuniary terms not the most important literary award in the Afrikaans Literary Field, but due to its historical importance (dating back to 1917) and its canonizing influence it is still regarded as the most important registration of literary prowess, "mapping of the literary field", thus contributing to the literary prestige of writers. In this critical assessment of the literary prizes by Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (Die Akademie) the literary prizes of Die Akademie (the composition / structure and functioning of the literary commission, its rules of procedure and several contentious awards in the past) are scrutinized against the backdrop of international literary awards. Although it is widely accepted that literary awards and prizes make a contribution to sales and prestige, not everyone is convinced of the primate of literary considerations in the awarding of prizes. Often literary prizes and awards are seen by skeptics as dictated by economic trends and influence of sponsors. Subsidy by the state can also be seen as a subtle form of censureship. What must be borne in mind is that the concept of value as a so-called inherent property of an object has been vehemently refuted in the past decades and the current view is that value is seen as relative and relational, "as the product of the dynamics of the economic system" (Herrnstein-Smith). ln the remaining part of the article several contentious literary awards made by Die Akademie in the last 100 years, and the criticism levied against (some of) these awards, are evaluated.This criticism often entails speculation that Die Akademie has yielded to political and ideological pressures. The conclusion is that although this has indeed been the case in a few instances (like that of Uys Krige) in the majority of cases Die Akademie's judgement and evaluation have been grounded in fairly objective literary criteria and has stood the test of time.
Evaluation is central to literary studies and has led to an impressive list of publications on the status and history of the canon. Yet it is remarkable how little attention has been given to the ...role of textual properties in evaluative processes. Most of the chapters in The Quality of Literature redress this issue by dealing with texts or genres ranging from classical antiquity, via Renaissance to twentieth century. They provide a rich textual and historical panorama of how critical debate over literary quality has influenced our modes of thinking and feeling about literature, and how they continue to shape the current literary landscape. Four theoretical chapters reflect on the general state of literary evaluation while the introduction weaves the different threads together aiming at further conceptual clarification. This book thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the problems that are at the heart of past and present debates over literary quality.
This article distinguishes between the inherent value of literature itself and literary evaluation of individual works. First, it conducts a critical examination of the concepts and procedures within ...literary criticism in terms of the retention and avoidance of value. The second step involves determining the intrinsic value of literature as distinct from various heteronomous functional definitions. Finally, literary evaluation of individual works is perceived as a process aimed at identifying the objective quality of aesthetic value in the divergences and tensions between norm, function and extra-aesthetic values.
This essay examines the discursive practices of the Critical Review during the period of the Seven Years War, when Tobias Smollett – reputedly a fervent anti-Gallican – was editor-in-chief and one of ...the journalists to whom a substantial number of articles have now been attributed. Reading the Critical Review from the perspective of Anglo-French relations, throws into relief the critics’ animated engagement with French culture, thought and literature, and discloses the review’s multifaceted reformist agenda. This means modifying previous characterizations of the journal’s aims and ethos. The Critical Review’s journalists endorsed the philosophes’ conception of an ‘Enlightenment Republic of Letters’ whose ultimate goal was personal and social amelioration, and acclaimed the efforts of all writers, whatever their nationality, who wrote like ‘true’ patriots or ‘citizens of the world’ or ‘friends of mankind’. Reviewers poured scorn on the ‘ridiculous national prejudices of the vulgar’ and condemned the manifestations of xenophobia that historians have argued were expressions of a distinctive sense of British or English identity. Anti-French slurs do appear on occasions, and some French works were downgraded, but many were generously praised, and different markers signalling affinity and alignment with French writers abound.
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