Literary merit

Literary merit

Literary merit is a quality of written work, generally applied to the genre of literary fiction. A work is said to have literary merit (to be a work of art) if it is a work of quality, that is if it has some aesthetic value. The concept is important in law because it is used to decide, for example, if a text is pornographic in nature (if a text has literary merit then it is usually held to be non-pornographic).

Some people have suggested that the concept of "literary merit" is practically impossible to define, and it is hard to see how such an idea can be used with any precision or consistency by policy makers, magistrates or judges. A common response to this criticism is that, while the process of establishing literary merit is difficult, fraught with dangers, and often subjective, it is the only method currently available to separate work that has significant cultural value from work that is ephemeral.

However, others would point out that any enlightened human being can very clearly differentiate between what has literary merit and what has not (i.e. 'War and Peace' has literary merit and 'The Da Vinci Code' does not). This is linked to J. S. Mill's idea of there being higher and lower pleasures: if someone were to fully experience the higher pleasures then they would inevitably choose them over the lower pleasures.

See also

*Artistic merit
*Western canon


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Literary fiction — is a term that has come into common usage since around 1970, principally to distinguish serious fiction (that is, work with claims to literary merit) from the many types of genre fiction and popular fiction (i.e., paraliterature). In broad terms …   Wikipedia

  • Literary or Profane Legends —     Literary or Profane Legends     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Literary or Profane Legends     In the period of national origins history and legend are inextricably mingled. In the course of oral transmission historic narrative necessarily becomes …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Literary — Lit er*a*ry (l[i^]t [ e]r*[asl]*r[y^]), a. [L. litterarius, literarius, fr. littera, litera, a letter: cf. F. litt[ e]raire. See {Letter}.] [1913 Webster] 1. Of or pertaining to letters or literature; pertaining to learning or learned men; as,… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Literary property — Literary Lit er*a*ry (l[i^]t [ e]r*[asl]*r[y^]), a. [L. litterarius, literarius, fr. littera, litera, a letter: cf. F. litt[ e]raire. See {Letter}.] [1913 Webster] 1. Of or pertaining to letters or literature; pertaining to learning or learned… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • merit — mer|it1 [ˈmerıt] n [Date: 1100 1200; : Old French; Origin: merite, from Latin meritum, from merere to deserve, earn ] 1.) an advantage or good feature of something merit of ▪ The film has the merit of being short. ▪ The merit of the report is its …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • merit — I UK [ˈmerɪt] / US noun Word forms merit : singular merit plural merits ** 1) a) [countable, usually plural] an advantage or good quality that someone or something has I can see very little merit in this approach. merit of: Viktor and Katya were… …   English dictionary

  • merit — mer|it1 [ merıt ] noun ** 1. ) count usually plural an advantage or good quality that something has: I can see very little merit in this approach. merit of: Viktor and Katya were arguing the merits of independence as I sat down. To me, one of the …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • merit — 1 noun 1 (countable usually plural) one of the good features of something such as a plan or system: The committee will look at the relative merits of the two proposals. opposite demerit (1) 2 (U) formal a good quality that makes something deserve …   Longman dictionary of contemporary English

  • literary — lit|er|ar|y [ lıtə,reri ] adjective usually before noun ** 1. ) involving books or the activity of writing, reading, or studying books: Dublin s great literary tradition a respected literary critic a ) relating to books that are considered to… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • literary */*/ — UK [ˈlɪt(ə)rərɪ] / US [ˈlɪtəˌrerɪ] adjective [usually before noun] 1) a) involving books or the activity of writing, reading, or studying books Dublin s great literary tradition a respected literary critic b) relating to books that are considered …   English dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”