The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson

Forms of Artistry and Thought

Philip Smallwood

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2023
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009370011
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

For Samuel Johnson, poetical judgments were no mere exercise in dry evaluation; rather, they reflected deep emotional responsiveness. In this provocative study, Philip Smallwood argues for experiencing Johnson's critical texts as artworks in their own right. The criticism, he suggests, often springs from emotional sources of great personal intensity and depth, inspiring translation of criticism into poetry and channelling prose's poetic potential. Through consideration of other critics, Smallwood highlights singularities in Johnson's judgments and approach, showing how such judgments are irreducible to philosophical doctrines. 'Ideas', otherwise the material of criticism's propensity to systems and theories, exist for Johnson as feelings that 'slumber in the heart.' Revealing Johnson's humour and intellectual reach, Smallwood frames his criticism in unresolved ironies of time and forms of historical change. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Imprints page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: The Criteria of the Heart
• Part I Johnson's Criticism and the Forms of Feeling
• Part II Critical Relations and the Art of Literary History
• Part III Johnson, Dramatic Poetry and Thinking
• Part IV Time, Truth and History
• Part V Editing Lives, and Life
• Appendix: Irony in Revolt: F. R. Leavis Reads Johnson
• Bibliography
• Index