Jan 19: Eaglestone, “Critical Attitudes”

Eaglestone’s chapter on “Critical Attitudes” extends our discussion in class on Tuesday about how “context” gets used (and, in some approaches, deliberately NOT used) in interpretation. At the end of the chapter, Eaglestone notes different “blind spots” and “gaps” in both the intrinsic and extrinsic ways of reading he describes. Why might it be useful to take one approach or the other, despite these gaps and blind spots?

4 thoughts on “Jan 19: Eaglestone, “Critical Attitudes”

  1. In Eaglestone’s chapter “Critical Attitudes” the sections are split in order to give independent analysis of both the intrinsic and extrinsic approaches to text. In the section “Intrinsic attitudes: into the text” the author establishes that intrinsic critics focus on only form within Literature ; for example, “style, plot, and character” (pg 43). Despite a “blind spot” of this approach being, as Eaglestone states, “even if you claim only to be looking at the text…you bring your own ideas, expectations and experiences…how can any judgement of worth be objective?”, I believe someone analyzing Literature with this approach would find it useful due to the sense of self analysis this tactic produces. Much of intrinsic criticism is based on the individual reader and their interpretation. Compared to the extrinsic method, the intrinsic method does not need to consider society’s beliefs during that era. I believe a reader may find the extrinsic approach useful, despite its removal from the individual or character’s struggle within a text, because Literature is often used as a way to find and understand the shared morals or beliefs that all humans have within them no matter the decade. Extrinsic criticism provides a broader view. Personally, I agree with Eaglestone on pg 43 that a good analysis of a text would need a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic criticism.

  2. Using a critical attitude when approaching an analysis of a literary work can be useful to guide us in facilitating what we are attempting to understand about a literary text. For example an intrinsic attitude could be an asset in examining the language and word usage of an author to help build or influence our own writing skills. While the approach of an extrinsic attitude could be helpful, for example, in examining a poem written about a historical event like a war in which the author participated in that influenced the context of the work. A more comprehensive dialogue would use a “coming-together of these two attitudes” to create an overall study of a work to help fill in any blind spots (43).

  3. In many ways both intrinsic and extrinsic attitudes are needed for a full understanding interpretation of a text. I agree with Eaglestone when he says “Sometimes the most useful works of criticism are produced by a coming – together of these two attitudes in different ways.” (Eaglestone 43) However I can see where one is more useful in some ways than in another. It sounds to me, that the best attitude used depends on the readers intent when they pick up a text. For example, I disagree with the idea that a novel can’t be used in a similar way as historical documents presented on page 42. Isn’t part of a novel’s charm is that it gives the reader a sense of traveling through time? Consider the works of Jane Austen, they show a deep insight on the society in which they were set and written in. The novels give the reader an idea of the day to day life and concerns of people in Austen’s time in ways a local censor taken at the time never could. So if the reader wants to see inside that society at that time they can use the extrinsic attitude. However the intrinsic attitude can be more helpful to the reader who is searching for double meetings in poems such as the example used on page 39 with “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” by William Wordsworth. At first glance the double meaning found by Wordsworth’s use of the word “lying” could be completely missed. Though this brings up two contradicting interpretations, both interpretations are valid. In conclusion, though both attitudes work best when used together, they can be highly effective when used separately depending on what the reader wants to take from the text.

  4. Either attitude may reveal meanings or clues that the other may not. I believe that it depends on what you want to understand from the work. The blind spots, if one even sees them as so, may be removed by using aspects from both attitudes in unison. Still, I believe that extrinsic approach is wonderful because the literary work is most likely influenced in the era or time period that it was produced. The text could possibly reflect society and history as it was, giving one a better understanding of the setting in which the work takes place.

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