Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle claim that the pleasure in literature is too rarely discussed in theoretical analyses today. As evidence, they refer to frequent use of the word (not just related concepts) in literature of earlier eras. They refer especially to William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads.

Literature is about the idea of a specific kind of readerly pleasure: the erotic. From Ross Chambers, they borrow the concept of "narrative seduction." This is fundamental, they argue, even when the subject matter is not sexual. It pertains to the author's drawing the reader into a relationship with a character. Their arguments also draw on nineteenth-century aestheticism, which places beauty at life's center.

A second important point that the authors make is that pleasure, often linked with bliss, is not a smooth, even process. Rather, for critics such as Barthes, pleasure is unsettling, unobtainable, and ecstatic. The reader draws pleasure from the paradox of its imminent removal. It is unfulfilled and always imminent.

"Pleasure" is a chapter in Bennett's and Royle's book, An Introduction to Literature, 5th ed. New York: Routledge, 2016.

References

• books.google.com