Arnoldian criticism

Definition 
The critical writings of the 19th-century poet and critic Matthew Arnold, or subsequent criticism derived from Arnold. Arnold introduced a number of terms that have enjoyed wide currency: Hebraism/Hellenism, philistine, sweetness and light, and the touchstone principle. He was an early exponent of cultural criticism, seeing literature as "a criticism of life" and defining culture as "the best that has been thought and said." Arnold's definition has often been quoted and, in the field of contemporary cultural studies, contested for its apparent limitation of culture to "high" culture.