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Understanding and ethics in Coleridge
description, evaluation and otherness
pp. 119-135
Abstract
Students of literature have always been concerned with the relationship between description and evaluation, which is perhaps why the distinction between "fact" and "value", the relation between what "is' and what "ought" to be, is a natural concern of literary critics who turn their attention to ethics. In the early part of this century the distinction appeared in the division of labour between scholars who described texts and critics who evaluated them.1 Then we began to evaluate the merits of texts based on how well they could be described within a formalist and subsequently a deconstructive paradigm. Lately we have begun describing and evaluating with a vengeance: history has returned, descriptions have become "thick" and anecdotal — but just as authoritative — and evaluation has moved from the aesthetic to the political.
Publication details
Published in:
Hadfield Andrew, Rainsford Dominic, Woods Tim (1999) The ethics in literature. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Pages: 119-135
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-27361-4_8
Full citation:
Haney David P. (1999) „Understanding and ethics in Coleridge: description, evaluation and otherness“, In: A. Hadfield, D. Rainsford & T. Woods (eds.), The ethics in literature, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 119–135.