Literature and the Conservative Ideal

By Examining The Ways In Which The Conservative Vision Of The World Informs Certain Modes Of Literary Study And Has Been Treated In Various Works Of Literature Throughout The Ages This Book Seeks To Recover Conservatism As A Viable Rigorous Intellectually Sound Method Of Critical Inquiry. While It Stops Short Of Promoting Political Conservatism As An Antidote To The Dominant Progressive Strain Of Today’S University It Recognizes Literature’S Transformative Power As An Artistic Reflection Of The Universal Human Condition. In This Way It Operates Against The Grain Of Today'S Prevailing Approaches To Literature Particularly The Postmodernist Wave That Has Employed Literature As A Recorder Of Injustice Rather Than As Evidence Of Artistic Achievement. Therefore The Agenda Is Restorative If Not Revolutionary Returning Literature To Its Place As The Center Of A True Liberal Arts Curriculum One That Celebrates Human Freedom The Unimpeded Pursuit Of Truth And The Preservation Of Civilized Life.Perhaps This Book'S Greatest Service Is That It Seeks To Define Conservatism In Highly Distinct Contexts. Its Authors Collectively Reveal That The Conservative Ideal Lacks Formulaic Expression And Is Thus More Richly Complex Than It Is Often Credited For. Conservatism Is Not Easily Defined And By Presenting Such Divergent Expressions Of It The Essays Here Belie The Reductive Generalizations So Common Throughout The Academy. Ultimately The Conservative Ideal May Have Much More In Common With The Stated Goals Of Higher Learning Than Has Previously Been Acknowledged. Thus While This Book In No Way Seeks To Directly Apply Conservatism To Curricular Matters It Does Revive A Competing Vision Of How Knowledge Is Transmitted Through Art And History While Also Affirming The Ways In Which Literature Functions As A Forum For Ideas.