Artistic merit is the artistic quality or value of any given

work of art A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

, music, film, literature, sculpture or painting.

Obscenity and literary merit

The 1921 US trial of James Joyce's novel '' Ulysses'' concerned the publication of the ''Nausicaa'' episode by the literary magazine ''

The Little Review ''The Little Review'', an American literary magazine founded by Margaret Anderson in Chicago's historic Fine Arts Building, published literary and art work from 1914 to May 1929. With the help of Jane Heap and Ezra Pound, Anderson created a m ...

'', which was serializing the novel. Though not required to do so by law, John Quinn, the lawyer for the defence, decided to produce three literary experts to attest to the literary merits of ''Ulysses'', as well as ''The Little Review''s broader reputation. The first expert witness was Philip Moeller, of the

Theatre Guild The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of th ...

, who interpreted ''Ulysses'' using the

Freudian Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...

method of unveiling the subconscious mind, which prompted one of the judges to ask him to "speak in a language that the court could understand". The next witness was

Scofield Thayer Scofield Thayer (12 December 1889 in Worcester, Massachusetts – 9 July 1982 in Edgartown) was a wealthy American poet and publisher, best known for his art collection, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and as a publisher and editor of the l ...

, editor of ''

The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...

'', another literary magazine of the time, who "was forced to admit that if he had had the desire to publish ''Ulysses'' he would have consulted a lawyer first—and not published it". The final witness was English novelist, lecturer, and critic

John Cowper Powys John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...

, who declared that ''Ulysses'' was a "beautiful piece of work in no way capable of corrupting the minds of young girls". The editors were found guilty under laws associated with the

Comstock Act The Comstock laws were a set of federal acts passed by the United States Congress under the Grant administration along with related state laws.Dennett p.9 The "parent" act (Sect. 211) was passed on March 3, 1873, as the Act for the Suppression of ...

of 1873, which made it illegal to circulate materials deemed

obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be us ...

in the U.S. mail, incurred a $100 fine, and were forced to cease publishing ''Ulysses'' in ''The Little Review''. It was not until the 1933 case '' United States v. One Book Called Ulysses'' that the novel could be published in the United States without fear of prosecution. Another important obscenity trial occurred 1960 in Britain, when the full unexpurgated edition of D. H. Lawrence's '' Lady Chatterley's Lover'' was published by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.trial of Penguin under the

Obscene Publications Act 1959 The Obscene Publications Act 1959 (c. 66) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene mater ...

was a major public event and a test of the new obscenity law. The 1959 act (introduced by Roy Jenkins) had made it possible for publishers to escape conviction if they could show that a work was of literary merit. Several academic critics and experts of diverse kinds, including

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...

, Helen Gardner,

Richard Hoggart Herbert Richard Hoggart (24 September 1918 – 10 April 2014) was a British academic whose career covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with emphasis on British popular culture. Early life Hoggart was bor ...

Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribu ...

, Norman St John-Stevas and Dr John Robinson, Anglican bishop of Woolwich, were called as witnesses for the defence, and the verdict, delivered on 2 November 1960, was "not guilty".Feather, John. ''A History Of British Publishing''. p. 205; Rolph, C. H, ed. (1990). ''The Trial of Lady Chatterley'' (2nd ed.) This resulted in a far greater degree of freedom for publishing explicit sexual material in the United Kingdom.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Artistic Merit Aesthetics Self-censorship Western culture

Obscenity and literary merit

See also

References