Blog post #2

In Culler’s “What is Literature and Does it Matter?”  The section titled ” The nature of literature” He defines literature from several angles. The angle I find most interesting is “Literature as aesthetic object.” Jonathan Culler talks about the debates of  beauty being an objective property in works of art or a subjective response of viewers. He talks about Immanuel Kant (the primary theorist of modern Western) theory of literary work being and aesthetic object because it shows urges readers to tell the similarities between form and content. This really interest me because of the theory because beauty can be an objective property but sometimes I feel (especially with thr internet giving you so much access to personally opinions) could be a subjective response of the viewers so the artist or creator may fix what they made. This also makes me think about aesthetics and beauty in literature- I’ve never actually thought too much about it but when we read and the writers tell us what’s there we imagine the setting in our mind and they might tell us the objects in our surroundings or use certain words that make the setting seem beautiful.

1 thought on “Blog post #2

  1. Kira, your post does a good job of detailing your opinion about this section of the chapter. I think you should keep the conflict you introduce here in mind–between Immanuel Kant’s definition timeless beauty and the more subjective beauty you also note. For literature, the essential question is whether it has to adhere to so-called timeless standards of beauty and, relatedly, whether those definitions of beauty leave important things out.

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