Mediating Criticism: Literary Education Humanized

In the twentieth century, literature was under threat. Not only was there the challenge of new forms of oral and visual culture. Even literary education and literary criticism could sometimes actually distance novels, poems and plays from their potential audience. This is the trend which Roger D. Sell now seeks to reverse. Arguing that literature can still be a significant and democratic channel of human interactivity, he sees the most helpful role of teachers and critics as one of mediation. Through their own example they can encourage readers to empathize with otherness, to recognize the historical achievement of significant acts of writing, and to respond to literary authors’ own faith in communication itself. By way of illustration, he offers major re-assessments of five canonical figures (Vaughan, Fielding, Dickens, T.S. Eliot, and Frost), and of two fascinating twentieth-century writers who were somewhat misunderstood (the novelist William Gerhardie and the poet Andrew Young).

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; 2. Part I: Empathizing; 3. Summary; 4. 1. William Gerhardie's Chekhovism; 5. 2. Andrew Young's poetic secretion; 6. Part II: Recognizing achievement; 7. Summary; 8. 3. The impoliteness of The Waste Land; 9. 4. Henry Vaughan's unexpectedness; 10. 5. Decorum versus indecorum in Dombey and Son; 11. 6. Robert Frost's hiding and altering; 12. Part III: Responding to hopefulness; 13. Summary; 14. 7. Robert Frost and childhood; 15. 8. The pains and pleasures of David Copperfield; 16. 9. Fielding's reluctant naturalism; 17. Epilogue: Mediating critics and common [sic] readers [sic]; 18. Notes; 19. Bibliography; 20. Manuscripts; 21. Index

Review :
[...] as radical, in the context within which we are reading, as anything that came out of the theory wars. Roger Sell's book will be music to the ears of anyone who enjoys reading, who appreciates subtle and attentive critical analysis, and who continues to find value in the teaching of literature. We are far from the stalemate of much recent criticism. If such a thing as an enriching exchange between author and reader is humanly possible, who could be more fitted to further that dialogue and enhance the reader's experience than Sell's mediating critic. [...] useful to reread whenever I am teaching these authors again. This approach is not a sentimental return to the age of Saintsbury, but takes from the critical and pedagogical approaches following in the wake of cultural materialism and poststructuralism the concern with history to build a new form of 'literary appreciation' that will combine the 'Saintsburian energy, enthusiasm and breadth' (p. 13) with and intellectual self-consciousness. Sell marshals an impressive amount of evidence for his communicative theory of literature. To say that the range of his reading and scholarship is wide is an understatement, and the amount of information provided does not make for easy reading. But these two books do indeed constitute a "timely intervention," to quote the blurb of Literature as Communication, in the current cultural debate. By giving a powerful boost to historical scholarship, which both New Criticism and Deconstruction to a climate of opinion less given to arid theorizing and dogmatism. In a series of case studies of Fielding, Vaughan, Dickens, Frost, Eliot, Gerhardie and Auden, Sell explores how sympathy and empathy between writer and reader can regain a central place in academic literary discussion. He lays refreshing emphasis on the teacher's conveying generosity and hope. His instincts are admirable [...] [...] the liveliness, opinions and generosity of the approach are very enjoyable. [...] a proposal [...] for a pragmatics which, instead of growing a hard shell of method, seeks to interact with other dimensions of human experience, answerable to aesthetics and ethics.Both Literature as Communication and Mediating Critism are books which should be read by every scholar concerned with literary theory and linguistic criticism, and by every linguist interested in the outer reaches of pragmatics and interactional discourse analysis — or by anyone who won't choose sides between literature and language.