An Experiment in Criticism

by C.S. Lewis

Book Overview

Professor Lewis believed that literature exists above all for the joy of the reader and that books should be judged by the kind of reading they invite. He doubted the use of strictly evaluative... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521422817
• ISBN13: 9780521422819
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Matter of Perspective

Contents: I The Few and the Many II False Characterisations III How the Few and the Many use Pictures and Music IV The Reading of the Unliterary V On Myth VI The Meanings of Fantasy VII On Realisms VIII On Misreading by the Literary IX Survey X Poetry XI The Experiment Epilogue, Appendix While this work is clearly a scholarly work, aimed at a scholarly audience, it is neither desirable that it be excluded from the modern scholar's library (because it is written by C.S. Lewis) or the amateur literary lover's library (because it is scholarly). In fact, this text is so lucid in analysis, so reasonable in proposition, and so erudite in perspective that it is a must for every English or Humanities undergrad or graduate student, and any person who desires a deeper understanding of literature. Lewis examines what makes for beneficial reading and why. He does not judge; he merely describes. However, he does draw some startling conclusions (especially to the modern literary mind) as a result of his analysis-conclusions that are in many respects more applicable today than when they were first composed. Regardless of the reader's agreement with Lewis' propositions, the mere journey through his critical process is an enrichment and a delight. I urge all serious students of literature to engage in the dialogue contained herein. It is well worth the effort. --The Medieval Chick

is there a spider in the room ?

Typical of Lewis's deeper insight into things, his "Experiment" consists in a reversal of the usual method of literary judgement. Instead of classifying BOOKS, he classifies READERS and how they "use" or "receive" books. The true (unbiased) critic does not pontificate a judgement of 'good' or 'bad' upon a book without careful cosideration of the possible confusion between degrees of merit and differences of kind. "I want to convince people," says Lewis, "that adverse judgements are always the most hazardous... A negative proposition is harder to establish than a positive. One glance may enable us to say there is a spider in the room; we should need a spring-cleaning (at least) before we could say with certainty that there wasn't. When we pronounce a book good we have a positive experience of our own to go upon... In calling the book bad we are claiming not that it can elicit bad reading, but that it can't elicit good. This negative proposition can never be certain."Central to his argument is the fact that the same book may be read in different ways. It follows then that there is a certain speculative nature to evaluative criticism, and therefore no amount of reliance upon literary criticism can absolve one from the responsibility of becoming a GOOD READER. And what is a good reader? Well, that is the question isn't it? In my opinion (and it is just that... an opinion) I feel that reading Lewis's "Experiment" can answer that question more effectively than anything I've ever come across. Read it, and see where you fit into Lewis's categories of the "literary" and the "unliterary" person (too lengthy to enumerate here). If at any point, you feel offended and want to hurl the book across the room... you are of the latter category.Lewis deplored the technical dissection of what he loved so dearly... the simple act of reading. I loved his image in chapter 2 of the "status seeker" type of readers, gathered to discuss the finer (and, of course HIDDEN) points of "approved literature" while the only real literary experience in such a scenario "may be occurring in a back bedroom where a small boy is reading Treasure Island under the bed-clothes by the light of an electric torch."Lewis sought in books (as he called it here) an "enlargement of his being". He says on page 52, "I am probably one of many who, on a wakeful night, entertain themselves with invented landscapes. I trace great rivers from where the gulls scream at the estuary, through the windings of ever narrower and more precipitous gorges, up to the barely audible tinkling of their source in a fold of the moors. But I am not there myself as explorer or even as tourist. I am looking at that world from outside." This is a terrific/significant book that will be read, re-read, and cherished by anyone who has ever had similar musings. Oh, and by the way... all GOOD readers have !

One of the most important books written on Art: READ IT NOW!

As a person whose life is dedicated to art in all its various incarnations, this has proved the single most enlightening work I have ever had the pleasure of reading. While it itself is literary criticism and in one sense not literature but a study thereof, it's the most radical, revolutionary book I have read regarding art. Before I can continue, one point needs to be cleared first.I'm a Christian, and I believe the single most important priority is to lead people to the knowledge and saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can do such through art. However, anything that Lewis wrote that lead someone to Jesus is, of course, more important than this book in that respect. Jesus comes first, art comes underneath that in priority, as do all things. That being said:AN EXPERIMENT IN CRITICISM is the single most important work C. S. Lewis has produced when it comes to literature and the arts. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, the SPACE TRILOGY, and TILL WE HAVE FACES are literature, but this overwhelms them all - not because of what it is (a universal principle that can be applied to art), but because of what it is not (a story or work of art that not everyone will have the same taste for). People may or may not like his fiction (although I find it rare to meet a person who doesn't like NARNIA) - but this book anyone can appreciate, especially those interested in literature in specific and art in general (for, although it concerns itself primarily with literature, this book also stands in defense of drama, music, painting, and the artistic endeavours of humankind in general). Because there are differing tastes in terms of fiction, people who will not read Lewis's own literature will (or should) read this. This element comes into play at the last chapter, where Lewis brings out how hard it is to take down a work with this apparatus, because, while you may not enjoy a work, others may. Literature is a very highly subjective experience.CRITICISM's central argument rests in the fact that books should not be judged by some arbitrary critical analyses, but by what response it elicits in the reader. This book contains one of Lewis's famous quotes, at the end of the Epilogue: "But in reading literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself." That is the central thesis of this work: not to approach a piece of literature, or movie, or painting, or drama, as something to experience and forget immediately afterward, but to enter into it, surrender to it, and approach it with an open mind. That is one thing that is so great about this book - even people who have prejudices against Lewis can read this work. It also points out the central flaw in evaluative criticism: it may dominate and wipe away the chance at a reader appreciated the work for what it really is, and to experience it in the reader's own way. Lewis does not argue that all evaluative criticism is bad - there's a very human need, he says, to `compare notes', and that is normal, but t

How to experience art

According to Lewis, we judge a person's taste by what he or she reads. Instead, Lewis proposes an experiment: to judge literature by the way person read it. Thus, good literature is that which compels good reading. Lewis begins his discussion of good reading by an analysis of viewing pictures and listening to music - to the experience of art generally. Of the two ways to experience art, receiving and using, receiving art is best because it helps us transcend ourselves. When we receive art we allow our senses to follow the pattern defined by the artist. The art thus enriches our life, allowing us to see or experience something foreign and new. On the other hand, when we use art, we are merely using it to confirm or facilitate ideas, feelings, and beliefs that we already hold. We have not allowed art to enrich our life. Lewis mostly defines good reading by comparing it to bad reading. He, of course, describes in detail these habits. Ultimately, Lewis believes that we read literature to transcend ourselves, and yet paradoxically we are never more ourselves than when we do.

On becoming a great reader

Like famed Canadian novelist Robertson Davies, C.S. Lewis believed that a great reader is someone who enters fully into the experience of the writer, who gives his whole attention to what he is reading, and who brings to a book a curiosity and a sympathy to surrender to the work on which the author is engaged. In this way, great reading is similar to love, moral action, and intellectual achievement. Even those who with whom we disagree can teach us to see the world through their eyes. As Lewis says, "in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself." In this way, literature can enlarge ourselves and our view of the world. Lewis argues it is less important to decide between reading what is considered "high brow" versus "low brow" than it is to learn to read greatly. AN EXPERIMENT IN CRITICISM was a delightful book to read, chock full of illustrations to demonstrate the points being made. Avid readers will enjoy this book.