Latin Poetry and the Judgement of Taste : An Essay in Aesthetics

## Abstract The aim of this book is to encourage an interest in the tradition of modern Western aesthetics as it applies to poetry and the arts. It argues that the study of literature today is unduly dominated by ideology critique, and that there is a need for a new recognition of the importance of beauty and the aesthetic in our response to the arts. It explores ways in which Kant’s aesthetic theory, as set out in the Critique of Judgement, still provides powerful tools of analysis for the modern critic. For example, the Kantian aesthetic — the free judgement of taste — carries a rebuke to the means/end rationality that is so widespread and so dangerous in the contemporary West. It shows that the Kantian ‘judgement of taste’ is a judgement of form and content together, and is thus not a version of formalism. It explores the relationship between politics and aesthetics in the responses to the arts, arguing that aesthetic judgements are not simply disguised judgements of other kinds. Finally, it urges on those writing about literature the value of aesthetic criticism — the attempt to isolate the unique aesthetic quality of artworks — as pioneered by Walter Pater, offering three essays on Latin poets as examples of what might be done.

This book argues for a new attention to the importance of beauty and the aesthetic in our response to poetry. Charles Martindale explores ways in which Kant's aesthetic theory, as set out in the Critique of Judgement, remains of fundamental importance for the modern critic. He argues that the Kantian judgement of taste is not formalist, and explores the relationship between the aesthetic and the political in our responses to art. Finally he urges the value of aesthetic criticism as pioneered by Walter Pater and others. The (mainly Latin) poems discussed are all translated, and the book will be of interest not only to classicists but to anyone interested in aesthetics, aestheticism, poetry, reception, comparative literature, and critical theory.

"This book examines the value of aesthetics. Martindale argues that Kant's analysis of 'the judgement of taste', the judgement that something is beautiful, remains of fundamental importance for the modern critic. He explores the relationship between form and content in poetry and urges the value of aesthetic criticism as pioneered by Walter Pater"--Provided by publisher Charles Martindale shows that Kant's analysis of 'the judgement of taste', the judgement that something is beautiful, remains of fundamental importance for the modern critic. He explores the relationship between form and content in poetry and between politics and aesthetics in our responses to it