Narcissus in the Classroom: The Pedagogical Implications of Subjective Criticism

Abstract

This article examines the critical suppositions and pedagogical implications of subjectivist literary theory. In subjectivists' hands, the literature classroom moves from an objectivist concern with parsing the formal features of literary works towards a preoccupation with the personal, psychological antecedents of readers' responses to literature. Subjectivism begins in categorical error, for it borrows its critical framework from psychoanalytic theory and thereby confuses the nature, methods, and purposes of literary investigation with those of therapy. Since subjectivism regards all reading as autobiographical, such fundamental aspects of literature teaching as the evaluation of students, the preparation of teachers, and the goals of literary study are called into question. Ultimately the article suggests that literature teachers must abandon the scientism of subjectivist and objectivist schools alike in favor of an aesthetic framework for interpreting and teaching literature.