Affective Fallacy "The Affective Fallacy is a confusion between the poem and its results (what it is and what

it does).... 31 ends in impressionism and relativism

"separation of emotion from referential meaning"

emotive vs. cognitive forms of criticism

Attempting to understand what a poem is from what it does, far from being a route the obstacles to objective criticism, actually leads "away from criticism and from poetry" toward impressionism and relativism. What counts is referential meaning, not emotion, and criticism with cognitive not affective outcomes. "It may well be that the contemplation of this object, or pattern of emotive knowledge, which is the poem, is the ground for some ultimate emotional state which may be termed the aesthetic.... It may well be. The believe is attractive; it may exalt our view of poetry. But it is no concern of criticism, no part of criteria" 48

"The objective critic ... must admit that it is not easy to explain ... how poetry makes ideas thcik and complicated enough to attach emotions." 48

Western criticism doesn't do much better. Thomas Mann didn't bother to explore further the contradiction between his reaction to movies and his view of the emotionlessness of beauty ("Thomas Mann and a friend came out of a movie weeping

copiously--but Mann narrates the incident in support of his view that moves are not Art. 'Art. is a cold sphere.'" 44 "General affective theory at the literary level has, by the very implications of its program, produced very little actual criticism" 44