Tuesday, May 03, 2016

An important book …

… Book Review: An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In this concise and provocative book, Lewis proposes an unconventional method for evaluating literature: to judge books by the ways in which they are read. “Let us try to discover how far it might be plausible to define a good book as a book which is read in one way,” he writes, “and a bad book as a book which is read in another.” It is an intriguing experiment that proves rewarding regardless of whether or not one agrees with Lewis’s conclusions, for it leads to a serious, intelligent, and insightful discourse on literature.
- See more at: http://www.nwreview.com/reviews/an-experiment-in-criticism.html#full


1 comment:

  1. Thanks for highlighting this one -- which I will look for and read -- as the "theory" sounds like a perfect marriage of New Criticism and reader-response theories.

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