On Empson
Michael Wood
Princeton University Press, $47.99
Those not familiar with the heyday of Lit Crit will probably associate the phrase "seven types of ambiguity" with the ABC drama of this name, or the novel by Elliot Perlman on which it is based. The title was, however, taken from a famous work of literary criticism by William Empson. In this sustained meditation on Empson's criticism and poetry, Michael Wood tackles the critic's key preoccupations, including his rejection of the intentional fallacy – "Empson wants to see literature as a viaduct from mind to mind" – and an analysis of his seven categories of ambiguity, which are ambiguous in themselves or, as Wood puts it, involve some "dizzying logical acrobatics". While alert to Empson's contradictions and cavalier claims, On Empson is a tribute to criticism that recognises "more than one code of morals in the world".