Personal Bias in Literary Criticism (Dr. Johnson, Matthew Arnold and T.S. Eliot)

Personal Bias in Literary Criticism is an insightful and exploratory study of a subject both delicate and subtle. Literary criticism is supposed to be a disinterested exercise of critical intelligence. But complete objectivity for a literary critic is a vanity of the human wishes. Personal likes and dislikes, religious and political commitments and the complex nature of the literary work itself tend to disturb the objectivity of the ideal critic. So what matters is the quality of relevant response to the literary work that a critic of armed vision makes in a given situation and the degree of objectivity that he achieves in his approach. The book deals with this challenging problem of personal bias operating in literary criticism. It discusses how bias differs from prejudice and in what subtle ways it works in any critical endeavour. Although the central focus is on Dr. Johnson, Matthew Arnold and T.S. Eliot, the book scrutinises a wide range of critics from Plato and Aristotle to modern Americans. It is an indispensable study for the students, researchers and teachers of literary criticism.