Anglo-Saxon Criticism During Xix-Xx Centuries

Crítica Anglosajona

Unit 1: Matthew Arnold and the Victorian Era.

Art as a social and ethical reformation. Literature as a substitute of religion. The critical theory of the "touchstones". Poetry as a criticism of life: from literary criticism to social criticism.

Victorian Era (1840-1901)

Matthew Arnold was one of the most important critics in the Victorianism (he was a poet, a critic, etc....)

In the Victorian Era, there were very serious doubts, articulated by intellectuals in general. For many centuries, religion was the most important cement to the society, all the people walked in the same direction. But there is a "cohesive" factor that descompose this period.

Another important event was the growth of literacy: the capacity to read and write. In 1907 the Parliament tried to pass an Act of Education to provide everybody state elementary education. La idea era que cuanto más leyesen y aprendiesen, menos se les podía convencer y menos permanecerían bajo el "paraguas" de la Iglesia: French Revolution.

In 1907 this law was passed: "The Education Act", at the end of the Victorian Period (1837-1901). This influenced the capacity of the people, es decir, la gente se veía más obligada a llevar a sus hijos, por que si no les molestarían...

Matthew Arnold was the school inspector: how education was provided to young children. He was everyday in contact with these problems, the context in which he realised that British society should descompose the religious sentiment.

British society was declining and simultaneously, the literacy was going up. The idea of Matthew Arnold was that if literacy is growing and religion not, we musts replace religion with poetry. More people were capable of reading English texts. Matthew Arnold believed that English poetry would contribute to substitute the religion.

The second "cohesive" factor was keeping people together. The first factor was the religion, and the second one is the classical education (Latin and Greek); it is refereing to the people that went to the public school and then they went to the University. Matthew Arnold proposed to teach everybody English language, specially English poetry in order to descompose the society. The objective of him was to make them believe they belong to the same unit, for example, if they all love Shakespeare.

The knowledge and appreciation in this new education of the English language.

English literature: Poor men's classics (Shakespeare), for people that cannot go to public schools (very elitist) and go to state schools where they don't have to pay.

Matthew Arnold's role was the preparation to introduce literature in modern language as a university subject because literature in English was considered something vulgar; only classical languages were considered a good idea.

One of the characteristics of the Victorian Era:

Beginning of disbelieving.

Growing of literacy: this is the moment in which the education acts. Universal education for everybody.

The "glue" of the British society removed towards a period of anarchy, chaos, which provoked the descomposition of the British society. Instead of believing in God, they began to believe in other things.

Method 1:

Main basis of artistic, cultural and literally ideas of Matthew Arnold.

The first one is the idea of desinterestedness; it means that he/she ignores that, it means lack if interest, a kind of indiference. When Matthew Arnold uses this word in relation to literary criticism, it's a good characteristic, with positive connotations. So, for him the interested literature is criticized, because the interested critic criticises the work of literature not paying attention to the artistic values of the work but to the political, social and economical pleasures.

The interested critic is based in questions externals to the walues of the book instead of paying attention to the values of the text. The critic is conservative, so I'm going to criticise the book negatively.

The desinterested critic is not influenced by the practical affairs of everyday life. The crtitic is immune to the external facts. For Matthew Arnold, desinterestedness is the same as objectivity.

When the critic is desinterested, he is being objective. He does not treat controversial values, only the book text. This is not mixed with political values nor questions. It's objective, detached(separado,objetivo imparcial), that is a desinterested critic.

The first half of the 20th century is basically formal. Generally speaking, it moves towards objectivity. This is a local value to critical objectivity. This is the kind of criticism that chracterize the critic of the first half of the 20th century in Europe and in the United States. So, there is a line of continuity between Matthew Arnold (19th century) and the new critics.

Idea of desinterestedness.

Edinburh Review  Whigs (liberals, progressist people).

The Edinburgh Review were whigs, liberals. Matthew Arnold criticised the Edinburgh Review when he found that they wrote critics with a conservative point of view (taking into account the socioeconomical views, not the objective values). For Matthew Arnold, that was wrong.

Quarterly Review  Tories (conservative people).

Desinterested means indifferent. For Matthew Arnold, desinterested is objectivity. You do not apply criteria taking from another paths.

Desinteresado: Criticar una obra teniendo en cuenta los valores artísticos, no la ideología.

Ideas of religion, science, poetry and philosophy.

For Matthew Arnold and for everybody else the Victorian Period was peculiar. But, why?

In the 19th century, there was a terrible battle between science and religion. In this periodof the 19th century, science was put int the same level as religion.

For many centuries, the prominence of religion, incompatible with science (many scientists had to retract, for example, Galileo). Science for the first time is winning the battle to religion.

Theories: The origin of species