Liberal Humanism refers to a set of values and attitudes about the relationship of the individual to the outside world. Many of the concepts that seem fundamental to human existence that emerged from the Enlightenment—briefly summarized in the Declaration of Independence as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"—are expressions...
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of what has come to be known as liberal humanism.
In the context of literary texts or poetry, a liberal humanist reading would embrace the following precepts:
- Literature is timeless and transcends its historical context (that is, it is intrinsically valuable and fundamentally ahistorical)
- It is self contained; a reader doesn't have to look to outside material to understand its meaning;
- It should be read in isolation from other material
- Human nature is essentially unchanged; people today have the same feelings and desires as people from hundreds or thousands of years ago
- People are individuals and that individuality can be defined as our "essence"
- The purpose of literature is to preserve or enhance these essential values, in a subtle way
- The form and content should be organically linked, that is, the structure of the poem (meter and rhyme, stanzas and line breaks, etc.) should enhance the meaning
- It should be true or real or genuine; that is, it should articulate a truth in a new and direct way that avoids cliche
- It should show rather than tell
- The role of the critic is to help the reader unlock the true meaning of the piece.
So, in brief, a liberal humanist reading of a poem would involve a close reading of the text in an attempt to understand its "universal truth"—in other words, that which is revealed by the essential humanity shared by reader and writer.
See Peter Barry, Beginning Theory (Oxford UP, 2013)