Critique and Postcritique

by Elizabeth S. Anker (Editor), Rita Felski (Editor)

Now that literary critique's intellectual and political pay-off is no longer quite so self-evident, critics are vigorously debating the functions and futures of critique. The contributors to Critique and Postcritique join this conversation, evaluating critique's structural, methodological, and political potentials and limitations. Following the interventions made by Bruno Latour, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Sharon Marcus and Stephen Best, and others, the contributors assess the merits of the postcritical turn while exploring a range of alternate methods and critical orientations. Among other topics, the contributors challenge the distinction between surface and deep reading; outline how critique-based theory has shaped the development of the novel; examine Donna Haraway's feminist epistemology and objectivity; advocate for a "hopeful" critical disposition; highlight the difference between reading as method and critique as genre; and question critique's efficacy at attending to the affective dimensions of experience. In these and other essays this volume outlines the state of contemporary literary criticism while pointing to new ways of conducting scholarship that are better suited to the intellectual and political challenges of the present. 

Elizabeth S. Anker, Christopher Castiglia, Russ Castronovo, Simon During, Rita Felski, Jennifer L. Fleissner, Eric Hayot, Heather Love, John Michael, Toril Moi, Ellen Rooney, C. Namwali Serpell

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Philosophy, Ebooks, Criticism

336 pages, Paperback

Published April 7, 2017

Reviews

[Efe Re]

Hop on bitch this is the latest shit.

[Miroslaw Aleksander]

Rather disappointing, considering that Felski's "Limits of Critique" was an exhilarating and insightful read. Too much of the essays here basically reiterate what has already been said. Some essays show the strong points of critique, but I've never gotten the impression that it is being rejected wholesale by this approach.

[tinyflower.reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much like the approach of a reassesment of critique. A well-written and diverse collection on texts about the topic. For advanced readers.