The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson

Forms of Artistry and Thought

Philip Smallwood (Birmingham City University)

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English

Cambridge University Press
21 September 2023

Literary essays; Literary studies: general; Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800; Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers; Philosophy; Humanist & secular alternatives to religion

For Samuel Johnson, poetical judgments were no mere exercise in dry evaluation; rather, they reflected deep emotional responsiveness. In this provocative study, Philip Smallwood argues for experiencing Johnson's critical texts as artworks in their own right. The criticism, he suggests, often springs from emotional sources of great personal intensity and depth, inspiring translation of criticism into poetry and channelling prose's poetic potential. Through consideration of other critics, Smallwood highlights singularities in Johnson's judgments and approach, showing how such judgments are irreducible to philosophical doctrines. 'Ideas', otherwise the material of criticism's propensity to systems and theories, exist for Johnson as feelings that 'slumber in the heart.' Revealing Johnson's humour and intellectual reach, Smallwood frames his criticism in unresolved ironies of time and forms of historical change. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

By: Philip Smallwood (Birmingham City University)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Weight: 495g
ISBN: 9781009369985
ISBN 10: 1009369989
Pages: 217
Publication Date: 21 September 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: The criteria of the heart; Part I. Johnson's Criticism and the Forms of Feeling: 1. Johnson's compassion; 2. 'The tears stand in my eyes': Johnson and emotion; Part II. Critical Relations and the Art of Literary History: 3. Petty caviller or 'formidable assailant': Johnson reads Dennis; 4. Readers curious and common: Johnson, Thomas Warton and historical form; Part III. Johnson, Dramatic Poetry and Thinking: 5. Shakespeare, Johnson and philosophy; 6. Two ways of being wise: Johnson, philosophy and Montaigne; Part IV. Time, Truth and History: 7. Johnson and time; 8. Truth, fiction and 'undisputed history'; Part V. Editing Lives and Life: 9. Annotated immortality; 10. Arts of structure and the rhythm of the lives.

Philip Smallwood is Emeritus Professor of English at Birmingham City University. He has written widely about Johnson's criticism and has lectured on his work internationally. Previous books include Johnson Re-Visioned (2001) and Johnson's Critical Presence (2004), which won the Choice 'Outstanding Academic Title' Award for 2005. This was followed by Critical Occasions (2011), his study of eighteenth-century critical history.

Reviews for The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson: Forms of Artistry and Thought

'Philip Smallwood has been writing insightfully and eloquently about Samuel Johnson for thirty years. The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson confirms his standing as one of our most authoritative, appealing scholars of Johnson and literature. Drawing on a lifetime of reading and thinking Smallwood sensitively explores the artistic implications and human depths of Johnson's engagement with literature and experience – not only within the parameters of Johnson's critical traditions, both European and Classical, but particularly in his enduring concern with action, love, loss, time, death, compassion, happiness, and beginnings and endings, in which his criticism is rooted. Written with an elegance and honesty commensurate with their subject, these essays cohere to disclose a Johnson whose heart and mind inform a literary personality that continues to challenge us intellectually and to resonate with our emotional needs.' Greg Clingham, Professor of English Literature, Bucknell University 'An enquiring defence of Johnson as critic, and of literary criticism as a creative living medium, Philip Smallwood's new book is absorbing, richly informed and beautifully exemplified.' Freya Johnston, Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford