This study is researched to find the history and development of the moral approach of literary criticism.
Of the various types of criticism practiced today, the moral approach has undoubtedly the longest history: Plato was concerned with the moral ef...
This study is researched to find the history and development of the moral approach of literary criticism.
Of the various types of criticism practiced today, the moral approach has undoubtedly the longest history: Plato was concerned with the moral effect the poet might have in his ideal Republic. Horace declared that poet should try to blend together the delightful and the useful and concluded that teaching with pleasure is his business. The followers of Horace, like Julius Casesar Scaliger and Philip Sidney, echoed the theory again.
Samuel Johnson did not hesitate to judge the moral content of the writers in his critical works. Matthew Arnold argued moral excellence and moral interpretation of life. And Tolstoy stressed 'Christian Art'.
In the 20th century, the major critics of moral approach are as follows; Moral evaluation had expressed chiefly by Neo-Humanist (Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer More). On the other hand, T.S. Elot declared the necessity of an alliance between religion and literature. And F.R. Leavis and Yvor Winters expressed the traditional concern for the moral end of literature. Especially F.R. Leavis did it in his novel criticism. He regarded the novel as moral fable.