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Article: Wimmin against literature. (feminist literary criticism)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- September 30, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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T0 CARE about literature, to teach it and make it a part of your life, you have to understand what it is and what it does. Does literature make you a better person? Matthew Arnold thought that it might. Robert Frost doubted it, but did think that literature raised human experience "to a higher level of regard." Lionel Trilling once remarked in a Columbia class that you may read a great book, but a great book also reads you-it judges, silently, your quality of response. My own view is one of wonder: that this human being, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Bronte, Hemingway, could write so well-could conceive the hitherto inconceivable sentence.
Literature also has ...