
In Defense of Reason
Three Classics of Contemporary Criticism
Yvor Winters(Author)
Swallow Press
Published on 2. March 1987
Book
Paperback/Softback
627 pages
978-0-8040-0151-9 (ISBN)
Description
Yvor Winters has here collected, with an introduction, the major critical works-Primitivism and Decadence, Maule's Curse, and The Anatomy of Nonsense-of the period in which he worked out his famous and influential critical position. The works together show an integrated position which illuminates the force and importance of the individual essays. With The Function of Criticism, a subsequent collection, In Defense of Reason provides an incomparable body of critical writing.
The noted critic bases his analysis upon a belief in the existence of absolute truths and values, in the ethical judgment of literature, and in an insistence that it is the duty of the writer-as it is of very man-to approximate these truths insofar as human fallibility permits. His argument is by theory, but also by definite example-the technique of the "whole critic" who effectively combines close study of specific literary works and a penetrating investigation of aesthetic philosophies.
The noted critic bases his analysis upon a belief in the existence of absolute truths and values, in the ethical judgment of literature, and in an insistence that it is the duty of the writer-as it is of very man-to approximate these truths insofar as human fallibility permits. His argument is by theory, but also by definite example-the technique of the "whole critic" who effectively combines close study of specific literary works and a penetrating investigation of aesthetic philosophies.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ohio
United States
Publishing group
Ohio University Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
645 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8040-0151-9 (9780804001519)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Yvor Winters (1900-1968) was a poet, critic, and Stanford University professor of English literature. He won the Bollingen Prize in 1961.