Review of Roger D. Sell's 'Literature as Communication: The Foundations of Mediating Criticism'

Abstract

This is a review, in Spanish, of Roger D. Sell's book 'Literature as Communication: The Foundations of Mediating Criticism.' Roger Sell has developed a theory of linguistic politeness applied to literary communication. His line of research is therefore similar to mine in his attempt to build bridges between literary criticism and linguistic pragmatics. The book advocates a theory of literary criticism as mediation: mediation between author and reader, or mediation between different ages, readings and cultural contexts. This is a crucial function of literary criticism which Sell considers has been neglected by literary theory in the later decades of the 20th century, though not always by critical practice. The purpose of this book is to provide the theoretical foundation which is now missing for literary criticism understood as a mediating activity.

Note: downloadable document is in Spanish

Keywords: Criticism, Literary theory, Communication, Interaction, Pragmatics, Politeness, Pragmalinguistics, Mediation