Disputes of value: literary studies, the humanities and evaluative theory (1975-2015)

Thesis

Focusing on the period between 1975 and 2015, this thesis explores changing approaches to ‘literary’ and ‘aesthetic’ value through the prism of four university disputes. Each chapter considers challenges to prevailing conceptions of value, charts the emergence of new frameworks, and reflects on how institutional pressures impact on theories of textual evaluation. In broad terms, the thesis charts a chronological move from objectivist to relativist theories of value; a subsequent shift to an aporetic middle-ground; and the emergence of a final moment at which the difficulties of this ‘paradoxical’ position become evident. It also acts as a partial historical recuperation of the intellectual histories of several theorists who have worked on value questions, and of the institutions to which they were, or are, affiliated.

The first chapter focuses on the ‘MacCabe Affair’ at Cambridge, showing how – partly as a consequence of the dispute – Frank Kermode’s writing on literary value moves from a deracinated, loosely idealist conception, to one dependent on, and embedded in, the vagaries of history. The second chapter looks at the ‘CIV Debates’ at Stanford, suggesting the centrality of a similarly historicist ‘pragmatism’ both in senatorial discussions surrounding the university’s ‘core list’ and in contemporary writing about value. The third chapter uses the rise of the London Consortium, and the eventual withdrawal of the British Film Institute from its governing structures, to illustrate a return to objectivist evaluation in the early 1990s, as well as the subsequent emergence of an aporetic account of value that endorsed neither objectivism nor relativism, while remaining committed to evaluation itself. The final chapter examines the effect of the RhodesMustFall movement on the University of Cape Town’s English Department, suggesting that the Fallist position clashed with the similarly aporetic approach to value favoured by long-standing members of the Department.

In conclusion, the thesis suggests that rather than being seen as constitutively unresolvable, questions of value in literary studies and the humanities should instead be considered as merely unresolved. It also reflects on the utility of dispute as a heuristic for contemplating value questions in general.

Authors: Freeman, RH

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-dew2zoeog
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: culture wars; RhodesMustFall; aesthetic value; evaluation; london consortium; value; Stanford; dispute; the classic; intellectual history; canon; university dispute; literary canon; University of Cape Town; literary value; Maccabe affair
• Subjects: Cultural Studies; Literary Studies; English; Literary Theory