ABSTRACT
In virtue of what does a poem express emotion? Philosophical debate on that question often reflects the lingering influence of two dominant tendencies in approaches to literature, broadly labelled “Romantic” and “Modernist”. Where Romanticism is loosely associated with author-centred views, Modernism is loosely associated with work-centred views. We shall see how these tendencies play out in the debate, but also where convergence is in evidence.
