SOURCE: Nadel, Ira B. “Textual Criticism and Non-Fictional Prose: The Case of Matthew Arnold.” University of Toronto Quarterly 58, no. 2 (winter 1988-89): 263-74.

In the following essay, Nadel discusses the usefulness of applying new critical approaches, such as sociology, historicity, and semiology, to Culture and Anarchy in order to enhance understanding of the text.

We see threatenings of confusion, and we want a clue to some firm order and authority.

(Matthew Arnold, cancelled passage, Culture and Anarchy)

In 1983 Jerome McGann declared that ‘textual criticism is in the process of reconceiving its discipline’ and cited revisionist views of copy-text, authorial intention, and textual authority to support his claims. McGann further argued that the social dynamic between an individual author, his work, and the method of literary production was crucial for a printed text, and should be studied more closely by textual critics. In addition, he noted that an author's intentions...