Faith in Relevance

This paper offers a brief look at some aspects of the concept of “relevance” after 1830. It suggests that the idea and logic of relevance has a history in the nineteenth century that develops with the rise of pragmatism... [ view full abstract ]

This paper offers a brief look at some aspects of the concept of “relevance” after 1830. It suggests that the idea and logic of relevance has a history in the nineteenth century that develops with the rise of pragmatism and other philosophies of value, and also with criticism’s shift around this same time from matters of taste toward interpretive understandings of the function of art.  It asks what it means for a work of art to become relevant and to stay relevant in a progressive age of news, of information at scale, and of natural selection and evolutionary adaptation.  I’ll focus on the pragmatic problem of relevance with specific reference to some paintings by Winslow Homer and Henry Ossawa Tanner and to writings by Stephen Crane.