Abstract
FROM PLATO TO BARTHES, the great critics have stressed the pleasures of reading literature, but in contemporary criticism it is mostly read as evidence for historical enquiry or as grounds for a theoretical position. When specialists in Renaissance literature meet, for example, they meet primarily as historians of politics and religion. Historical investigation and theoretical speculation are vital, but if the experience of literature – to use the traditional term, the sheer pleasure of reading – is neglected, literary criticism might as well be absorbed into other disciplines. While it is true, as I. A. Richards warns, that pleasure is not the goal but a consequence of reading,2 and that pleasure is not a simple and single experience but varies with the reader's phase of understanding, the rewards of pleasure are too fundamental and too durable to be ignored.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
