A Theory of the Animate Form of Literary Art: Kind-normativity, Criticism, and Axiology
type: CreativeWork
description: In this dissertation, I ask whether the possibility of experiencing a work of literary art as literature is conditioned by concept of literature or whether we can just get on with reading literature without such a concept. I begin with the question: is a concept of literary art necessary? I explore some key discussions of this idea, particularly over the past century. I argue that a concept of literary art is inescapable, since the very possibility of encountering a work as literature of a specific kind necessitates it. The question then becomes what is the fundamental concept that makes possible our engagement with literary art (and its diversity of forms in their incommensurate particularities)? Chapter 2 develops a fundamental distinction between primary ends that arise from a given whole, and secondary ends. I argue that literary art bears an autonomy beyond such secondary, external ends; it exists first and foremost as an end-in-itself. As such an internally purposive end itself, it may well serve secondary functions, but these can only ever be secondary to that which makes it the kind of whole it is. So, I argue, we have good reason to recognize literary art as an internally purposive, animate whole. And as such a whole, some key forms of inner normativity or “for its own sake” conditions bear necessarily on the activity of reader and literary work. Chapter 3 explores one version of this concept of literary art as an internally purposive whole, through the thought of Goethe and Hegel and as carried forward to some degree by Adorno and T.S. Eliot, and thence into features of various contemporary critical traditions. In chapter 4, I argue that quite apart from the specific moral content and even apart from specific determinate content, the animate form of literary art does bear a key innate moral significance that persists across all forms of literary art in virtue of the kind it is (irrespective of specific content or genre). In Chapter 5, I argue that if the f…
abstract: In this dissertation, I ask whether the possibility of experiencing a work of literary art as literature is conditioned by concept of literature or whether we can just get on with reading literature without such a concept. I begin with the question: is a concept of literary art necessary? I explore some key discussions of this idea, particularly over the past century. I argue that a concept of literary art is inescapable, since the very possibility of encountering a work as literature of a specific kind necessitates it. The question then becomes what is the fundamental concept that makes possible our engagement with literary art (and its diversity of forms in their incommensurate particularities)? Chapter 2 develops a fundamental distinction between primary ends that arise from a given whole, and secondary ends. I argue that literary art bears an autonomy beyond such secondary, external ends; it exists first and foremost as an end-in-itself. As such an internally purposive end itself, it may well serve secondary functions, but these can only ever be secondary to that which makes it the kind of whole it is. So, I argue, we have good reason to recognize literary art as an internally purposive, animate whole. And as such a whole, some key forms of inner normativity or “for its own sake” conditions bear necessarily on the activity of reader and literary work. Chapter 3 explores one version of this concept of literary art as an internally purposive whole, through the thought of Goethe and Hegel and as carried forward to some degree by Adorno and T.S. Eliot, and thence into features of various contemporary critical traditions. In chapter 4, I argue that quite apart from the specific moral content and even apart from specific determinate content, the animate form of literary art does bear a key innate moral significance that persists across all forms of literary art in virtue of the kind it is (irrespective of specific content or genre). In Chapter 5, I argue that if the f…
author: Gentry, Gerad
language: eng
keywords: Literary Theory, Literature and Ethics, Literature and Knowledge, organic form of literature, Philosophy of Literature, romanticism and idealism in literature
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/0fbd0702-108c-4756-8f7d-04253cf438ce/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2025-07-09
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:56Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.114827