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    Why Fiction Matters

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    Holliday_umd_0117E_16514.pdf (8.161Mb)
    No. of downloads: 21

    Date
    2015
    Author
    Holliday, John-Gregory Bass
    Advisor
    Levinson, Jerrold
    DRUM DOI
    https://doi.org/10.13016/M2NW75
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    Abstract
    I explore five features that bear upon literary value and what is involved in appreciating those features. In the introduction, I motivate the project, examine the notion of literary value itself, and sketch the major arguments of the dissertation. In chapter one, I argue that the sonic qualities of a work of fictional literature are always relevant to the literary value of the work. In chapter two, I develop a working account of rhythm in literature and argue that sufficiently appreciating rhythm when reading a work of literature requires performative interpretation. In chapter three, I argue that truth is sometimes relevant to the literary value of fiction. In chapter four, I argue that literature has the capacity to cultivate moral expertise in the intuitive judgment of particular moral cases and that such capacity contributes to literary value. Finally, in chapter five, I argue that fictional literature can provide a reader with the resources for an intimate emotional connection with the author and that a work’s ability to afford such an experience is a literary merit. The larger goal of the dissertation is to make a positive contribution to the discussion of literature’s value, particularly as it concerns prose fiction.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1903/17066
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    DRUM is brought to you by the University of Maryland Libraries
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