Canonical Reappropriation of Samuel Johnson's Literary Criticism : Toward the Critical Wisdom for the 21st century

Abstract

In the history of modern English literary criticism, the Age of Theory has just faded away. As already well-known, the theory-ridden literary interpretations have been made abstruse and ambiguous, overwhelmingly influenced by the so-called French School of the poststructuralist criticism. We are now in dire need of new critical orientations and methodologies which are more pragmatic and manageable to common readers. In other words, we should go back to the sound English tradition of literary criticism in order to bring back the critical wisdom for the 21st century. It seems to me that the most appropriate critical model to our literary profession is Samuel Johnson(1709-1784), the most canonical or representative critic in the British tradition. Johnson is still the most frequently quoted critic. He always tries to relate literature to our ordinary life. As an experiential critic, he avoided the metaphysical conceit of literary criticism for the general and universal human value in our interpretative activities. He preferred common human experience to esoteric reasoning in the wake of British tradition of empiricism. As far as Johnson is concerned, the common sense of human understanding in literary works leads to the way to the palace of wisdom in literary criticism.