contingencies of literary value
Exercise:
Complete the following sentence by circling all that apply. You may find that what you circle depends on the project you're working on at a given time. Make note of anything you discover about your relationship to this list and how you think about the contingencies of literary value.
Complete the following sentence by circling all that apply. You may find that what you circle depends on the project you're working on at a given time. Make note of anything you discover about your relationship to this list and how you think about the contingencies of literary value.
"What must be emphasized is that the value--the 'goodness' or 'badness'--of an evaluation is itself contingent, and thus a matter of how well it performs various desired/desirable functions for the various people who may at any time be concretely involved with it."-Barbara Herrnstein Smith
“An effective piece of poetry to one community will not necessarily seem interesting or well done to another.”
-Chris Green
I am writing for readers who value a literary text for its…
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Capacity to entertain readers/listeners
Capacity to promote empathy Capacity to challenge readers/listeners intellectually Complexity Paradoxical thinking Simplicity Accessibility Difficulty Possibility of Retelling Ambiguity Proliferation of meaning Availability for interpretation Strangeness Deeper truths within the text Philosophical meaning Morality Persuasive argument Potential to change readers’/listeners’ worldviews Craft |
Author’s control of the language
Revelation of the ills of society Unconventional use of language Availability for study Ability to preserve the cultural of a people Ability to convey the experience of the author and/or his/her culture Ability to include the audience’s participation Ability to generate other stories Ability to inspire other writers Potential to contribute to culture Evidence of historical truth (valuing the text as a primary text / an artifact of history) Ability to put readers/listeners in direct connection with the natural world Engagement with controversial social/political issues Creation of a sublime aesthetic experience Ability to bring a community together Ability to teach readers/listeners from the experiences of others Ability to reveal how all things are connected or interrelated Revelation of biographical information about the author |