A Dictionary of Literary: Gradus, A-Z

'Common—sense,' the Romantic critics told us, was all that was needed to understand and interpret literary texts. Today, we know this is not generally true. Modern criticism has joined with pre—Romantic criticism to expose common—sense as appropriate (because simple—minded), inadequate to comprehend and interpret verbal structures which are frequently 'non—[common]sensical,' anti—commonsensical, or even nonsensical.

The difference between readers today and their earlier counterparts is that ...