REASONABLE TASTE – Aesthetics & Literary Criticism

Part of the ‘Little History’ series (http://www.littlehistory.org/) from Yale University Press this book takes on a very big subject: the glorious span of literature from Greek myth to graphic novels, from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter. John Sutherland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sutherland_(author)) is perfectly suited to the task. He has researched, taught, and written on virtually every area of literature, and his infectious

James Wood’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wood_(critic)) call for a comedic moral seriousness in fiction is handsomely reviewed here http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/may/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview6   The depth and brilliance of Wood’s insights left me amazed, and I hope they will have the same effect on you. The Irresponsible Self  was first published in 2004. Check if this title is in stock at your local library

In an age when relativism of judgement is hardly ever questioned it’s a rare experience to go back to a confident assertion that there is such a thing as literary taste, and that this can be cultivated. Arnold Bennett (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Bennett) offers a literary canon here. First published 1909. Does it match your expectations? Check if this title

A half-century after its translation into English, Erich Auerbach’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Auerbach) Mimesis (originally published in 1946) still stands as a monumental achievement in literary criticism. A brilliant display of erudition, wit, and wisdom, his exploration of how great European writers from Homer to Virginia Woolf depicted reality has taught generations how to read Western literature. Auerbach’s aim

The title is a reference to a fragment attributed to the Greek poet Archilocus: πόλλ’ οἶδ’ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ’ ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα (“the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing”). In Erasmus Rotterdamus’s Adagia from 1500, the expression is recorded as Multa novit vulpes, verum echinus unum magnum. The fable of The Fox and the Cat embodies the same idea.

‘Literature as a way of life’ is the theme of this 1973 work by the self-assured Harold Bloom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Bloom and http://english.yale.edu/faculty-staff/harold-bloom). It is also an on-going conversation across the generations and between authors. Bloom traces out the strands of influence which connect authors of poetry. His take on the concept of influence is that it’s all

Many attempts have been made to define exactly what makes us uniquely human. The use of tools? The use of language? A sense of morality? The practice of religion? But one of them has always been that humans tell stories. There is no known culture that does not possess sets of narratives which are handed

This book is a classic exploration of the short story with readings of Chekhov, Hemingway, Kipling, Joyce, and others. Published by Frank O’Connor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_O%27Connor) in 1962. Check if this title is in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue here Home | South Lanarkshire Libraries (sllclibrary.co.uk) Frank O’Connor 211 pages in Melville House