Abstract
Matthew Arnold's characteristic brand of cultured and responsible criticism currently is being lauded by critics such as Joseph Epstein, Denis Donoghue, Morris Dickstein, and Eugene Goodheart in places as diverse as Commentary, The Times Literary Supplement, and Critical Inquiry. Each critic sees in Arnold a lifeline which can be thrown into the sea of today's esoteric criticism. Each shares the desire for a sort or criticism which escapes today's stultifying 'Englishmen'--critics who have an axe to grind, whether it be a Marxist, feminist, structuralist, symbolic interactionist, Freudian, Jungian, or deconstructionist one. Suddenly, Arnold's critical rule of 'disinterested curiosity' seems fresh again. Once more, critics of every stripe, whether social, literary, or rhetorical need reminding that criticism is an imaginative, humane art, one which is not under obligation to any one party--or method or ideology-- but rather speaks to all; one which does not hold allegiance to any one notion, but considers them all.
Because of this attempt to recall criticism from the status of a reflex to that of a response, it is appropriate to reconsider carefully Matthew Arnold's ideas--what he deemed valuable in criticism, in 'disinterested curiosity,' and in the critic. Even though Arnold spoke directly to literary critics in his meta-critical work, by extension, because of his commitment to the efficacy of ·criticism in promoting that which is valuable, he is speaking to all critics. He speaks to all those who see themselves as responsible commentators on the ways in which people symbolically communicate with one another.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Speech Communication
Volume
16
Issue
1
First Page
1
Last Page
16
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Van Halsema, Helen Sterk
(1984)
"The Critical Imagination,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 16:
No.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol16/iss1/4
Copyright
©1984 Iowa Communication Association
