Leavis and Lonergan

ISBN: 0761871373

Author: FITZPATRICK, JOSEPH

Condition: New

This book illustrates the value of the cross-fertilisation of literary criticism with philosophy, something Leavis advocated in his later writings. Lonergans epistemology of Critical Realism supports Leaviss account of how we reach a valid judgment concerning the worth of a poem or literary text and his exploration of the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity illustrates how close engagement with serious literature can be considered morally beneficial, something Leavis passionately believed in. Leavis and Lonergan are at one in providing convincing arguments against Cartesian dualism and the dominant positivist philosophies of their times. And Leaviss method and practice as a literary critic, which he developed independently of Lonergan, exemplify Lonergans epistemology as applied to literature and, in this way, illustrate its versatility and fruitfulness.