Literature, Evaluations and Truth

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Literature, evaluations and truth

Margarita Díaz Pérez
ILCLI (Institute for Logic Cognition Language and Information) - UPV/EHU
Claim
General question of my
research:
How both critics and people
interested in literature talk and
share information about
novels?
Claim of today’s talk:
Some cases of (dis)agreement
about the value of a novel are
not such.
Plan
1. Presentation of the case of

study: The Well of
Loneliness (The Well)
2. Agreement between
critics: The Well is a bad
literary work
3. Reasons given: analysis
and interpretation
4. How to understand this
“agreement”
Presentation of the case of study
Agreement between critics
Reasons given
How to understand this “agreement”
1. Presentation of the case of study: The Well of Loneliness
Marguerite Radclyffe Hall

Reasons given

Reasons given
“I would rather give a healthy boy

or a healthy girl a phial of prussic
acid than this novel. Poison kills
the body, but moral poison kills
the soul.”
— James Douglas
August 19, 1928
Reasons given
“These unnatural offences between

women which are the subject of this
book involve acts which between men
would be a criminal offence, and
involve acts of the most horrible,
unnatural and disgusting obscenity.
That is a fact which no one could deny.”
— Sir Chartres Biron

Chief Magistrate
November, 1928
Reasons given
“Stephen bent down and kissed Mary’s hands very humbly, for
now she could find no words any more . . . and that night they
were not divided.”
— Radclyffe Hall
The Well of Loneliness
Reasons given
2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work
Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

Reasons given

Reasons given
The adroitness and cleverness of

the book
The intensifies
adroitness its moral of
and cleverness
danger.
the bookItintensifies
is a seductive and danger.
its moral
insidious
It piece of
is a seductive andspecial pleading
insidious piece
designed
of special to displaydesigned
pleading pervertedto
decadence
display as a martyrdom
perverted decadenceinflicted
as a
upon these outcasts
martyrdom inflicted by
upona cruel
these
society. by a cruel society.
outcasts
——
James
JamesDouglas
Douglas
August
August19,
19, 1928
1928
Reasons given
“This book has some literary merit

[…] It is quite obvious to anybody of
intelligence that the better an
obscene book is written the greater
the public to whom the book is
likely to appeal. The more palatable
the poison the more insidious.”

Chief Magistrate
November, 1928
Reasons given
James Sir Chartres

Douglas Biron
literary merit +
obscenity
Reasons given
literary merit +
obscenity
Reasons given
THE NATION AND ATHENAEUM

“As a study of a psychology which
the book intensifies its moral
is neither as uncommon nor as
danger. It as
abnormal is amany
seductive
peopleand
imagine,
insidious
the book ispiece of special
extremely pleadingIt
interesting.
designed
is written to display
with perverted and
understanding
decadence with
frankness, as a martyrdom
sympathy andinflicted
upon these
feeling. […]outcasts by abook
And yet the cruelfails
completely
society. as a work of art.”
——Leonard Woolf
James Douglas
August 4, 1928
August 19, 1928
Reasons given

Her book [Radcliffe Hall’s] is formless
the
andbook intensifies
therefore chaotic.its
[…]moral
The novel
danger.
becomesIta is a seductive
catalogue, almostand
a ragbag.
Incident is piece
insidious addedofto special
incident,pleading
and
character to
designed tocharacter, and one sees the
display perverted
relevance which Miss Hall intended
decadence
each to haveastoathe
martyrdom inflicted
theme of the book.
upon these
But their outcastsis by
relevance a cruel not
intellectual,
society.
emotional, and therefore not artistic.
——Leonard Woolf
James Douglas
August 4, 1928
August 19, 1928
Reasons given
LIFE AND LETTERS

Rob Miss Radclyffe Hall of her challenging
thesis, and her novel would quite naturally slip
back into the category to which it belongs; it
would rank, that is to say, as a simple,
pleasantly written love-story with an unhappy
ending. […] “The Well of Loneliness” is likely
to raise a different set of issues, foreign to
aesthetics and outside the province of this
report. — Unsigned
October, 1928
Reasons given
Leonard Life and Letters’

Woolf critic
literary merit + simple

obscenity
formless
Reasons given

obscenity (1) The Well is a bad formless
literary work.
Reasons given
3. Reasons given: analysis and interpretation
Analysis
Interpretation
literary work.
Agreement between critics Terminology
Reasons given Analysis
How to understand this “agreement” Interpretation
3.1. Terminology
Analysis Interpretation
3.1. Terminology
A literary analysis is a judgment that gives some information about how
the literary work is like. Judgments that critics use describe the structure
of a novel, its style or its content.
“ “[A]nalysis ” [is] an explication of how the artwork “works, ”

what makes it tick.
Kivi (2015: 124)
3.1. Terminology
(2) Her [Radcliffe Hall’s] novel runs to over 500 pages.

— Morning Post, August 10, 1928
(3) Stephen Gordon is a girl born to a baronet and his wife, who both
wholeheartedly longed for a boy.
— Glasgow Herald, August 9, 1928
3.1. Terminology
Interpreting a literary work is to figure out what is the significance of the events
portrayed in the novel. Interpretation deals with the meaning of the work as a whole.
“ [Interpretation] involves identifying a perspective or vision or

general reflection than informs the subject matter and moves
beyond the immediate events portrayed.
(Lamarque 2009: 150)
3.1. Terminology
(4) The whole thesis is that there is a particular nature from birth that is, in
the inscrutable designs of God, set apart from the recognized divisions of
mankind, and that the censures of society are therein unjust.
— Morning Post, August 10, 1928

3.2. Analysis
Analysis
obscenity formless
3.2. Analysis
Analysis
“adroit” “formless”
“clever” “chaotic”
“seductive” “redundant”
3.2. Analysis
Lowbrow Middlebrow Highbrow

3.2. Analysis

Woolf critic
3.2. Analysis

Woolf critic
3.2. Analysis
James Sir Chartres Leonard Life and Letters’

Douglas Biron Woolf critic
3.2. Analysis
Analysis
“adroit” “formless”
“clever” “chaotic”
“seductive” “redundant”
3.3. Interpretation
Interpretation
obscenity formless
3.3. Interpretation
“The whole of this book, put on the most

temperate basis, is a demand for the
toleration and recognition of this type
of woman, that is to say, that they
should be received in ordinary society,
that they are not to be made outcasts or
pariahs or ostracized by decent people,
which is the whole plea of the book.”

Chief Magistrate
November, 1928
3.3. Interpretation
[L]et me warn our novelists and

our men of letters that literature
as well as morality is in peril.
Fiction of this type is an injury
to good literature. It makes the
profession of literature fall into
disrepute.
— James Douglas
August 19, 1928
3.3. Interpretation

the book intensifies its moral
“Her [Radcliffe Hall’s]
danger. It is a seductive and
present book invites
insidious piece of special pleading
consideration
designed to displayfrom two points
perverted
of view: as
decadence as aamartyrdom
work of art and
inflicted
because
upon theseof its subject.”
outcasts by a cruel
society.
——Leonard Woolf
James Douglas
August 4, 1928
August 19, 1928
3.3. Interpretation
Interpretation
obscenity formless
Reasons given
4. How to understand this “agreement”
Analysis
Interpretation
literary work.
Reasons given
4. How to understand this “agreement”
1. This particular case and presumably other cases of

agreement about the value of literary work are not
such.
2. In order to understand purely evaluative statements
we need to be aware of the context in the evaluation is
uttered. Evaluative statements made by critics take as
given knowledge about the literary context and the
conventions that govern the practice of literary
evaluation.
Thanks

Literature, Evaluations and Truth

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Literature, evaluations and truth

1. Presentation of the case of

1. Presentation of the case of study: The Well of Loneliness

Marguerite Radclyffe Hall

1. Presentation of the case of study: The Well of Loneliness

1. Presentation of the case of study: The Well of Loneliness

“I would rather give a healthy boy

1. Presentation of the case of study: The Well of Loneliness

“These unnatural offences between

— Sir Chartres Biron

1. Presentation of the case of study: The Well of Loneliness

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

The adroitness and cleverness of

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

“This book has some literary merit

— Sir Chartres Biron

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

James Sir Chartres

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

THE NATION AND ATHENAEUM

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

THE NATION AND ATHENAEUM

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

LIFE AND LETTERS

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

Leonard Life and Letters’

literary merit + simple

2. Agreement between critics: The Well is a bad literary work

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

literary merit + simple

3. Reasons given: analysis and interpretation

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

“ “[A]nalysis ” [is] an explication of how the artwork “works, ”

(2) Her [Radcliffe Hall’s] novel runs to over 500 pages.

“ [Interpretation] involves identifying a perspective or vision or

— Morning Post, August 10, 1928

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

Lowbrow Middlebrow Highbrow

Lowbrow Middlebrow Highbrow

Leonard Life and Letters’

Lowbrow Middlebrow Highbrow

Leonard Life and Letters’

Lowbrow Middlebrow Highbrow

James Sir Chartres Leonard Life and Letters’

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

“The whole of this book, put on the most

— Sir Chartres Biron

[L]et me warn our novelists and

THE NATION AND ATHENAEUM

Detractors of the theme Detractors of the form

4. How to understand this “agreement”