What is Good Literature? An Experiment in Aesthetic Judgement & Implicit Comparison
The four discussion group sessions this term are designed as an experiment in literary taste, with the goal of exerting pressure on the ways that we attribute value to literary texts and exploring the implicit role that comparisons play in the process of aesthetic judgement. Instead of an abstract, theoretical discussion, each week we will confront our participants, including invited guests – senior faculty members involved with OCCT – with a short excerpt from a controversial literary text, the details of which won't be disclosed at first. This format will plunge us into a lively conversation on how we construe literary value, and we'll gradually move to broader theoretical issues raised by the text, our reactions to it, and its wider reception.
