Alison,
One could extend this into literary critcism too, which can of course be a
demonstration of power (or power's limitations).
One might argue that some approaches to criticism assert a position of
'power over' and therefore can only limit/direct possibilities.
Other (more constructive?) criticism affirms the 'power to' explore
possibilities. The latter, by definition, would make no assumptions of
good/bad but might still ask difficult questions of the
writer/poet/novelist/artist.
And as with all dichotomies there are lots of shades in-between.
Tina
> if politics is taken in its widest sense, the study of power. To maintain
> poetry is "above" politics is in itself political, and in a way that seems
> to me to deny its own agenda and ideology, which I trace from Matthew
> Arnold's thoughts on culture and the State in _Culture and Anarchy_.
>
> All best
>
> Alison
>
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