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Full Idea
From Aristotle onwards it has been a tenet of the traditional rhetoric that the proper understanding of a literary work involves the location of it in the correct genre, that is, as drama, epic or lyric.
Gist of Idea
The traditional view is that knowledge of its genre to essential to appreciating literature
Source
Richard Wollheim (Art and Its Objects [1968], 32)
Book Ref
Wollheim,Richard: 'Art and Its Objects' [Penguin 1975], p.82
A Reaction
Walton argues this persuasively. I've seen the climax of a Jacobean tragedy ruined by laughter from the audience. Genre dictates appropriate responses, so it is a communal concept.
| 20413 | For Hegel the importance of art concerns the culture, not the individual [Hegel, by Eldridge] |
| 20328 | A thing is only seen as art in an 'artworld', which has a theory and a history [Danto] |
| 20441 | An ordinary object can be a work of art, but only if some theory of art supports it [Danto] |
| 20336 | Style can't be seen directly within a work, but appreciation needs a grasp of style [Wollheim] |
| 20337 | The traditional view is that knowledge of its genre to essential to appreciating literature [Wollheim] |
| 8114 | The institutional theory says only a competent expert can decree something to be an art work [Dickie, by Gardner] |
| 20329 | A work of art is an artifact created for the artworld [Dickie] |
| 20393 | The 'institutional' theory says art is just something appropriately placed in the 'artworld' [Davies,S] |