Teachers┬аof literature make judgments about value.┬аThey┬аtell┬аtheir┬аstudents┬аwhich┬аworks are powerful, beautiful, surprising, strange,┬аor┬аinsightfulтАФand thus,┬аwhich┬аare more worthy of┬аtime and attention than others. Yet┬аthe field of literary studies┬аhas┬аlargely disavowed judgments of artistic value on the grounds that they are inevitably┬аrooted┬аin prejudice or entangled in problems of social status.┬аFor several decades now, professors have┬аcalled┬аtheir┬аwork value-neutral,┬аsimply┬аa means for students to gain cultural, political, or historical knowledge.┬а
?Michael W. CluneтАЩs provocative book challenges these objections to judgment and offers a positive account of literary studies as an institution of aesthetic education.┬аIt is impossible, Clune argues, to┬аseparate┬аjudgments about literary value from the practices of interpretation and analysis that constitute any viable model of literary expertise.┬аClune envisions a progressive politics freed from the strictures of dogmatic equality and enlivened by education in aesthetic judgment,┬аtranscending┬аconsumer culture and market preferences.┬аDrawing on psychological and philosophical theories of┬аknowledge and┬аperception,┬аClune┬аadvocates for┬аthe cultivation of what┬аJohn┬аKeats called тАЬnegative capability,тАЭ the capacity to place existing criteria in doubt┬аand to discover new concepts and new values in artworks.┬аMoving from theory to practice, Clune takes up works by┬аKeats,┬аEmily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Samuel Beckett, and Thomas Bernhard, showing how close readingтАФthe professionтАЩs traditional key skillтАФharnesses judgment to open new modes of perception.