Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century

Mark William Roche

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9780300129595
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Not just another jeremiad against prevailing isms and orthodoxies, Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century examines literature in its connection to virtue and moral excellence. The author is concerned with literature as the teacher of virtue. The current crisis in the humanities, Mark William Roche argues, may be traced back to the separation of art and morality. (“When the distinction between is and ought is leveled,” he writes, “the power of the professions increases.”)

The arts and humanities concern themselves with the fate and prospects of humankind. Today that fate and those prospects are under the increasing influence of technology. In a technological age, literature gains in importance precisely to the extent that our sense of intrinsic value is lost. In its elevation of play and inexhaustible meaning, literature offers a counterbalance to reason and efficiency. It helps us grasp the ways in which diverse parts form a comprehensive and complex whole, and it connects us with other ages and cultures. Not least, great literature grapples with the ethical challenges of the day.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Sources and Translations
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Part One. Moral Principles of Literature and Literary Criticism
• Chapter 2. The Value of Literature
• Chapter 3. The Value of Literary Criticism
• Chapter 4. Contemporary Models
• Part Two. The Technological Age
• Chapter 5. Categories of the Technological Age
• Chapter 6. Aesthetics in the Technological Age
• Part Three. Possibilities for Literature and Literary Criticism in the Technological Age
• Chapter 7. The Value of Literature Today
• Chapter 8. Technology, Ethics, and Literature
• Chapter 9. The Literary Canon and the Literary Critic in the Twenty-First Century
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index