The Literary Discipline

A collection of essays arguing that literature is an art constrained by language and by the psychology of readers, and that successful writing expresses experiences readers can recognize rather than merely reporting facts. It distinguishes artistic works from documentary or informational books and examines themes including literary decency, originality, the vogue for naturalness and contemporaneity, and the kinds of characters appropriate to art. The author defends criticism as an empirical observation of reader response, draws on classical and contemporary thinkers, and criticizes both censorious moralism and self-absorbed writers who neglect the audience.