Search

Aesthetic judgment does not require defense, because moral judgment saturates our language and our experience. In the first part of this essay, I look at the writings of Iris Murdoch, Stanley Cavell, and G. E. M. Anscombe to show how judgments shape our most intimate dealings with the world. In the second part, I examine a strong instance of practical criticism: the writings of Clement Greenberg on Impressionism and Henri Matisse. Greenberg's Kantian attempt to separate aesthetic judgment from moral judgment breaks down in practice, a testimony to the depth of his engagement with art and the ubiquity of moral judgment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On "Woolf's literary impressionism," Ann Banfield asserts, "Katherine Mansfield was the decisive influence yet exemplified Impressionism's limits" ("Time Passes" 471) Mansfield never achieved "a post-impressionist 'modern fiction,'" not even in "Prelude" or "At the Bay." But Banfield overlooks Mansfield's elaboration of an alternative postimpressionism that consists not in Woolfian design in which moments are crystallized and kaleidoscopically arranged, but rather in visions of an incipient, preternatural motility. Mansfield's postimpressionism, less formally complex than Woolf's, is more metaphysical. Its most vibrant instance lies within the tidal pool in "At the Bay," a tidal pool taken over, stilled, and solemnized by Woolf for the beach-combing scene in To the Lighthouse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the short story "Wireless," by Rudyard Kipling is presented. It outlines the characters and explores the symbolic significance of these characters. It examines the story's reliance on values associated with realism including social legibility, sympathetic community and authoritative knowledge. It explores the narrator's impressionist style of narration.