Abstract: Introduction to this special issue examines the critical reputation of Matthew Arnold's prose in recent years, pointing out references to Arnold in current discussions and debates about and culture. Although Arnold was ignored or rejected by many advocates of postmodernist theory and other popular critical positions in the late twentieth century, some recent scholars and critics have shown a renewed interest in Arnold's approach to and culture, including his key idea of disinterestedness. essays in this special issue demonstrate a continuing interest in Arnold, from a variety of perspectives. ********** critical reputation of Matthew Arnold today is complex indeed. an historical context, there is no denying his strong influence on mid-to-late Victorian letters. Merely citing key titles such as The of Criticism at the Present Time and Culture and Anarchy reminds us of his prominence as a writer and intellectual among his contemporaries. Function originated as a lecture delivered by Arnold on 29 October 1864 in his role as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. It was published the following month in the National Review and then in 1865 as the opening essay in his Essays in Criticism. Arnold's reply in a Saturday Review article to an attack on Essays became the germ of Culture and Anarchy (1869), and the opening section of that book (Sweetness and Light) originated as his final lecture at Oxford. Today, excerpts from Arnold's original essays appear routinely in standard academic anthologies of Victorian that include nonfiction prose, often juxtaposed with selections from the works of John Henry Newman and Thomas Carlyle (both of whom influenced him in various ways) and Walter Pater (whom Arnold influenced profoundly). Arnold's literary career is distinctive because of his status as an important poet as well as critic. He began to write major poems as a student at Oxford, and his later transition from poet to critic was to some extent motivated by personal tensions and frustrations in his own poetic work. His professional career as an inspector of schools was also influential in his development as a critic. Arnold's central ideas and reputation were somewhat controversial in his own day--especially in regard to the biblical or religious criticism to which he turned after Culture and Anarchy. He had an ambivalent attitude toward America, and his 1883-84 tour there was marked by hostile press coverage, though in the long run Arnold made a greater impact on America than any other British or European critic. Overall, his success as a writer and intellectual was to a large measure due to his ability to negotiate the various and sometimes conflicting traditions and influences he inherited from his family and from the British society of his day--including his status as the eldest son of the famous preacher and pedagogue Thom--Arnold, who began his celebrated tenure as headmaster of Rugby School in 1828. Looking past this Victorian context, through the twentieth century and up until the recent past, Arnold's influence in developing the expanded meaning of those ubiquitous terms and has been enormous, and the large claims he made for poetry and in his late career still resonate with us. articles in this special issue of Nineteenth-Century Prose illustrate a continuing interest in Arnold, but before turning to them, I would like to point out aspects of Arnold's work that remain controversial or difficult to assess but which are nevertheless important today. In the 1980s British critics influenced by Marxist ideology intensified what had already been a mid-century questioning of Arnold's position as a defender of liberal culture and politics. Terry Eagleton in Literary Theory (1983) argued that Arnold had played a key role in the displacement of religion by English literature as a dominant instrument of social control. …
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-03-22
Language: en
Type: article
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