Literary Terms – Affective fallacy

Literary Terms,Affective fallacy,OBJECTIVE THEORY OF ART,IMPRESSIONISTIC CRITICISM,INTENTIONAL FALLACY

Literary Terms – Affective fallacy

 

A term introduced by W. K. Wimsatt and M. C.Beardsley to describe the critical approach of evaluating a work of literature by the emotional effect it produces in the reader. Proponents of the OBJECTIVE THEORY OF ART, especially followers of NEW CRITICISM, regard such an approach as misguided because they feel it confuses the work with its results, what it is with what it does.

Supporters of IMPRESSIONISTIC CRITICISM, however, insist that the reader's response to a work of literature is the ultimate criterion for judging its worth. They point to a long list of champions of the affective approach, from Aristotle to Emily Dickinson. Aristotle asserted that the purpose of TRAGEDY is to evoke "pity and fear" and then to offer a therapeutic release from these emotions (CATHARSIS).

Dickinson said, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”

The affective fallacy is considered the converse of the INTENTIONAL FALLACY, the "error" of judging a work primarily in terms of the author's intention.

See also:

INTENTIONAL FALLACY,

NEW CRITICISM,

OBJECTIVE THEORY OF ART.