Interpretation and judgment: A reading of Lonesome Dove

Abstract

Defending the importance for media study of a descriptive and evaluative scholarship grounded in old‐humanist perspectives, this essay argues for distinguishing between “cultural” and “aesthetic” interpretation. In the latter, the text is valued not as a mere carrier of cultural meanings but intrinsically, as an intellectually coherent exploration of its subject matter. The current widespread suspicion of evaluation as a form of ideological mystification impoverishes scholarship, especially that devoted to non‐canonical materials, by refusing to recognize and to value excellence. Using the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove as a case study, the essay argues that media texts, like literary works, can and should be evaluated according to the criteria of “formal mastery” and “intellectual coherence.”