Overcoming Matthew Arnold

Name: Overcoming Matthew Arnold
Brand: Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis

Overcoming Matthew ArnoldEthics in Culture and Criticism\nAuthor(s): James Walter Caufield\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781409426516, 978-1409426516\nSynopsis\nOpening the way for a reexamination of Matthew Arnold's unique contributions to ethical criticism, James Walter Caufield emphasizes the central role of philosophical pessimism in Arnold's master tropes of \""culture\"" and \""conduct.\"" Caufield uses Arnold's ethics as a lens through which to view key literary and cultural movements of the past 150 years, demonstrating that Arnoldian conduct is grounded in a Victorian ethic of \""renouncement,\"" a form of altruism that wholly informs both Arnold's poetry and prose and sets him apart from the many nineteenth-century public moralists. Arnold's thought is situated within a cultural and philosophical context that shows the continuing relevance of \""renouncement\"" to much contemporary ethical reflection, from the .