theoryofliteratu00inwell

Evaluation 261
of the literary structure, from devices to "meaning," the first
answer has the further difficulty of suggesting that the literary
values are there for anyone y as present as redness or cold. No
critic, however, has really meant to claim that kind of unqualified
objectivity for a poem: Longinus and other "classicists" who
appeal to the suffrage of all men of all times and lands make
silent restriction of their "all" to "all competent judges."
What the formalist wants to maintain is that the poem is not
only a cause, or a potential cause, of the reader's "poetic expe-
rience" but a specific, highly organized control of the reader's
experience, so that the experience is most fittingly described as
an experience of the poem. The valuing of the poem is the experiencing,
the realization, of aesthetically valuable qualities and
relationships structurally present in the poem for any competent
reader. Beauty, says Eliseo Vivas, expounding what he calls
"objective relativism" or "perspective realism," is "a character
of some things, and in them present; but present only in the
thing for those endowed with the capacity and the training
through which alone it can be perceived." 28 The values exist
potentially in the literary structures: they are realized, actually
valued, only as they are contemplated by readers who meet the
requisite conditions. There is undoubtedly a tendency to disallow
(in the name of democracy or science) any claim to objectivity
or "value" which is not publicly verifiable in the most complete
sense. But it is difficult to think of any "values" which offer
themselves thus unconditionally.
Older manuals often contrast "judicial" criticism with other
types— "impressionist," for example. This distinction was mis-
leadingly named. The former type appealed to rules or princi-
ples assumed as objective 5 the latter often flaunted its lack of
public reference. But in practice the latter was an unavowed
form of judgment by an expert, whose taste is to offer a norm
for less subtle sensibilities. Nor can there have been many critics
of the latter sort who did not attempt what Remy de Gourmont
defines as the great effort of any sincere man—to "erect into
laws his personal impressions." 29 Today, many essays called
"criticism" are exegetical of specific poems or authors and offer
no concluding estimate, rating, or ranking. Objection is some-
times raised to allowing such exegeses the name of "criticism"