Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
As the study of literature has extended to cultural contexts, critics have developed a language all their own. Yet, argues Mark Bauerlein, scholars of literature today are so unskilled in pertinent sociohistorical methods that they compensate by adopting cliches and catchphrases that serve as substitutes for information and logic. Thus by labeling a set of ideas an "ideology" they avoid specifying those ideas, or by saying that someone "essentializes" a concept they convey the air of decisive refutation.
As long as a paper is generously sprinkled with the right words, clarification is deemed superfluous.
Bauerlein contends that such usages only serve to signal political commitments, prove membership in subgroups, or appeal to editors and tenure committees, and that current textual practices are inadequate to the study of culture and politics they presume to undertake. His book discusses 23 commonly encountered terms - from "deconstruction" and "gender" to "problematize" and "rethink" - and offers a diagnosis of contemporary criticism through their analysis.
A self-styled "handbook of counterdisciplinary usage," Literary Criticism: An Autopsy shows how the use of illogical, unsound, or inconsistent terms has brought about a breakdown in disciplinary focus. It is an insightful and entertaining work that challenges scholars to reconsider their choice of words - and to eliminate many from critical inquiry altogether.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
Previews available in: English
Subjects
CriticismEdition | Availability |
---|---|
1
Literary criticism, an autopsy
1997, University of Pennsylvania Press
in English
0812234111 9780812234114
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. [149]-153) and index.
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?July 12, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
February 13, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | remove fake subjects |
January 26, 2012 | Edited by EdwardBot | add books to in library lending |
November 4, 2011 | Edited by ImportBot | import new book |
December 10, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |