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In Chapter 1, I mentioned two arguments against the aesthetic relevance of application, namely, the textual-supremacy argument and the aesthetic argument, and the time has now come to discuss these in depth. The discussion takes up five chapters — the rest of the book, more or less — and touches upon many different aspects of literary theory. The textual-supremacy argument, according to which only elements contained in the text itself are proper objects of literary response, is addressed in Chapter 8. The present chapter and Chapters 9 to 11 are devoted to the aesthetic argument, an argument whose force is derived from the conviction that literary response should be concerned exclusively with the aesthetic qualities of the text.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137035424_7

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