The Freedom of Criticism

This chapter turns to the terrain of cultural criticism, with a predominantly literary focus. It develops an account of the attraction of Arnoldian criticism (with its ‘free play of ideas’) to the strong ironies, comic flair, and ‘sarcastic turns’ of cynicism—modes of argument that challenge and assist Arnold’s critical authority, and that become the subject of his most explicit critical reflection when he writes about a German literary cynic, of the generation before him, for whom he had a keen affection: Heinrich Heine. The chapter traces the process by which the kinds of cynicism that Arnold admired and (finally) found wanting in Heine became components of the style and content of his own public moralism, increasingly targeted to the work of describing and attacking the opponents of ‘culture’. The final section of the chapter considers a late reanimation of Arnold’s cynicisms in the context of his encounters with American democratic culture.

“I mourn their nature, but admire their art”: Anna Seward’s Assertion of Critical Authority in Maturity and Old Age

In 1786 an anonymous correspondent appealed to Samuel Johnson’s biographer James Boswell in the pages of the Gentleman’s Magazine. Behind the pseudonym Benvolio was Anna Seward (1742‒1809), one of the prominent poetical voices of Britain at the time. From 1786‒87 and 1793‒94, Seward and Boswell engaged in a public and gradually acrimonious dispute over Johnson’s reputation. This article argues that at the core of the debates was Seward’s assertion of her literary and critical authority, and I contend that age and gender played key roles in Boswell’s dismissal of Seward’s claim.

Fans vs. critics: Challenging critical authority through memes

This article explores how fans of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film franchise challenge the authority of film critics regarding their negative appraisal of comic book film Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Snyder, 2016). Observing memes shared in Facebook fan pages, I argue that fans construct their own authority by defining themselves against critics via questioning critics’ taste, constructing critics as villains, and enacting their own sophisticated cultural capital. My research shows how fans use Internet memes to control the discussion and validation of their object of fandom amongst fans on social media. Observing the year following the film’s release, this study analyses memes via a visual rhetoric and modal analysis. While comic-book movie fandom has previously been academically explored, this subset of fans remains under-analysed. What is at stake for DCEU fans is the respect of popular culture, social media and fandom at large, their status impacted by the film’s critical failure.

Transformations of critical attention center

The study revolves around what critics and scholars have known as (critical authority), and we start by stating our view of the term. We took the term "critical focus of the curriculum" as an alternative. The critical focus of critic's interest varies according to each approach. As we study this aspect, we must present the critical approaches and their practical movement, and we show our topic according to the emergence and effectiveness of those approaches.