Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22210/ur.2025.070.1/06

Revisiting Matthew Arnold’s Notion of Criticism

Borislav Knežević ; Sveučilište u Zagrebu

Abstract

In discussing Matthew Arnold’s essay “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time” (1864), this paper seeks to emphasize the inherent importance of the topic articulated in the title of Arnold’s essay. Rather than seeking to reconstruct Arnold’s ideas on criticism over the course of his critical career, or review some of the readings of Arnold by later generations of critics, the paper primarily underscores aspects of Arnold’s essay which are relevant to scholarship in literary studies and the humanities in any historical period, albeit in different forms. In particular, the article examines Arnold’s definition of criticism, the role of the concept of “disinterestedness” within it, and possible new ways of reflecting on it, in the context of current trends of emphasizing the political dimension in English studies, substantial expansions of the discipline of English studies, and more general social changes that erode the cultural stature of literature and literary study today.

Keywords

Matthew Arnold, criticism, culture, disinterestedness

Hrčak ID:

349194

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/349194

Publication date:

13.7.2026.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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