2. A tendency—rather than a recognized school—within
Literary criticism to judge literary works according to
moral rather than formal principles.
– Judging literary works by their ethical teachings and by
their effects on readers.
– Literature that is ethically sound and encourages virtue
is praised
– Literature that misguides and corrupts is condemned.
MORALISTIC APPROACH-INTRODUCTION
3. Plato
Banished poets from Republic for fear that he might
Spread immorality and destabilize the country
5. Sir Philip Sidney
Praised the role of the poet in purifying the
Imagination, which the historian and the philosopher
were capable of.
6. Dr. Johnson
Was a stern upholder of morality and attacked Shakespeare for
his slip shod treatment of moral values.
7. Matthew Arnold
Great poetry is marked by high seriousness and true
Criticism pays attention to what a poem says than to
how it says.
8. Humanists
(order, restraint, discipline)
Major intellectual movement of the Renaissance
– Proponents of humanism believed that a body of learning,
humanistic studies (studia humanitatis), consisting of the study
and imitation of the classical culture of ancient Rome and
Greece, would produce a cultural rebirth after what they saw as the
decadent and “barbarous” learning of the Middle Ages.
– Humanism was characterized by lots of creativity and interest in the
Arts and Humanities brought about by increased scientific
knowledge, a renewed approach to ancient Greek-Latin texts