{{Short description|Concept about the value of art objects}} [[File:First Folio.jpg|thumb|The works of English playwright [[William Shakespeare]] are considered by many to be among the highest achievements in Western art.]] '''Artistic merit''' is the artistic quality or value of any given [[work of art]], music, film, [[literature]], sculpture or painting.
==Obscenity and literary merit==
The [[Obscenity trial of Ulysses in The Little Review|1921 US trial]] of James Joyce's novel ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' concerned the publication of the ''Nausicaa'' episode by the literary magazine ''[[The Little Review]]'', which was serializing the novel. Though not required to do so by law, [[John Quinn (collector)|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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Grazia |first1=Edward |title=Girls Lean Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and the Assault on Genius |year=1992 |url=https://archive.org/details/girlsleanbackeve00degrrich |url-access=limited |publisher=Random House |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/girlsleanbackeve00degrrich/page/10 10]}}</ref> The first expert witness was [[Philip Moeller]], of the [[Theatre Guild]], who interpreted ''Ulysses'' using the [[Freudian]] 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".<ref name="auto5">{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Margaret, C |title=My Thirty Years' War: An Autobiography by Margaret Anderson |year=1930 |url=https://archive.org/details/mythirtyyearswar0000unse |url-access=registration |publisher=Covici, Fried|page=[https://archive.org/details/mythirtyyearswar0000unse/page/220 220]}}</ref> The next witness was [[Scofield Thayer]], editor of ''[[The Dial]]'', 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".<ref name="auto5"/> The final witness was English novelist, lecturer, and critic [[John Cowper Powys]], who declared that ''Ulysses'' was a "beautiful piece of work in no way capable of corrupting the minds of young girls".<ref name="auto5"/> The editors were found guilty under laws associated with the [[Comstock Act]] of 1873, which made it illegal to circulate materials deemed [[obscene]] 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]]. The [[R v Penguin Books Ltd.|trial of Penguin]] under the [[Obscene Publications Act 1959]] 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]], [[Helen Gardner (critic)|Helen Gardner]], [[Richard Hoggart]], [[Raymond Williams]], [[Norman St John-Stevas]] and [[John Robinson (bishop of Woolwich)|John Robinson]], Anglican bishop of Woolwich, were called as witnesses for the defence, and the verdict, delivered on 2 November 1960, was "not guilty".<ref>Feather, John. ''A History Of British Publishing''. p. 205; Rolph, C. H, ed. (1990). ''The Trial of Lady Chatterley'' (2nd ed.)</ref> This resulted in a far greater degree of freedom for publishing explicit sexual material in the United Kingdom.
==See also== * [[Aesthetics]] * [[Art]] *[[Kitsch]] * [[Masterpiece]] * [[Taste (sociology)]] * [[Theory of art]]
== References == <references />
{{Aesthetics}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Artistic Merit}} [[Category:Concepts in aesthetics]] [[Category:Self-censorship]] [[Category:Western culture]]