Details

A Future for Criticism

1. Aufl.

von: Catherine Belsey
24,99 €
Verlag:	Wiley-Blackwell
Format:	EPUB
Veröffentl.:	09.12.2010
ISBN/EAN:	9781444393408
Sprache:	englisch
Anzahl Seiten:	160

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Beschreibungen

Titelbeschreibung

A Future for Criticism considers why fiction gives so much pleasure, and the neglect of this issue in contemporary criticism. <ul type="disc"> <li>Offers a brief, lively, and accessible account of a new direction for critical practice, from one of Britain's most prominent literary theorists and critics</li> <li>Proposes a new path for future criticism, more open to reflecting on the pleasures of fiction</li> <li>Written in a clear, jargon-free style, and illustrated throughout with numerous examples</li> </ul>

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface xi 1 Pleasure: Have we neglected it? 1 Fiction for pleasure 1 The case of tragedy 3 The English curriculum 6 Cries of joy 7 ‘Aesthetic’ pleasure 9 The Pleasure of the Text 12 Modernist unpleasure 14 Gaiety 15 2 Piety: Haven’t we overdone it? 18 Criticism on the defensive 18 Classic defences 22 The advent of theory 24 Law 28 The superego 29 Neurosis 30 Complacency 31 Culture and Anarchy 32 Artefacts and pleasure 33 Critical writing 34 3 Biography: Friend or foe? 37 Life and art 37 Biography in theory 39 What the authors say 42 New Historicism 43 Shakespeare’s life 44 Fact or fiction? 46 Shakespeare’s memory 47 Romance 51 The death of the reader 52 4 Realism: Do we overrate it? 54 A disputed value 54 The default genre 55 Imitation 57 Insight 60 Totalization 62 Suspicion 63 Objections 64 The radical view 66 Recuperation 68 A counter-example 70 5 Culture: What do we mean by it? 72 Cultural criticism 72 Twin perils 75 Culture as meanings 76 Meanwhile, in Paris … 80 Anthropology 80 Another culture 83 Perils circumvented 85 Work to do 88 6 History: Do we do it justice? 90 Official usage 90 Cultural difference 91 History and criticism 93 Customary knowledge 94 Dissonance 97 An example 99 The old historicism 101 Criticism as cultural history 103 The uses of criticism 103 Critical skills 105 7 Desire: A force to reckon with 107 Pleasure revisited 107 Orpheus 108 Loss 109 The desire of the protagonist 111 Stand-ins 113 The desire of the reader 114 The desire of the text 116 Substitution 118 Pacification 119 Defiance 120 Breaking the rules 123 And so … 126 Criticism 126 Notes 128 Index 140

Rezension

"The unbuttoned directness of this little book is invigorating." - Jean E. Howard (Shakespeare Studies, 2013) "A Future for Criticism issues a challenge to critics that really amounts to having the courage of our convictions and sticking to what we're good at, resisting the encroachments of history and psychology, and having 'confidence in the independent capabilities of criticism' (76) ... Belsey's book is a positive pleasure to read." (Transnational Literature, November 2011) "Laudably eschewing jargon, she draws up a very readable manifesto for change in critical practice which would require critics to be more reflective about the pleasure of reading fiction and attending plays . . . nevertheless, the front she has chosen on which to examine a new direction for literary and/or cultural criticism is timely and compelling, and her argument made with verve and originality." (Suite101.com, 4 April 2011)

Autorenportrait

Catherine Belsey is a research professor in English at Swansea University, UK. Her principal publications include Shakespeare in Theory and Practice (2008), Why Shakespeare? (2007), Critical Practice (1980, 2002), Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction (2002) and Desire: Love Stories in Western Culture (1994).

Back cover copy

A Future for Criticism offers an original approach to the pleasures of fiction, and puts forward an explanation for the neglect of these pleasures in contemporary criticism. Theorist and critic Catherine Belsey argues that current literary commentary singles out thematic issues at the expense of the true motives for reading and theatre-going. As a playful form in which anything can be said, fiction offers, she proposes, exceptionally subtle access to thought-worlds, both past and present. At the same time, it is capable of delivering challenges to the limits of orthodox thinking. Fiction, this engaging manifesto contends, enlists desire. Outlining in a clear, readable style a path that makes a decisive break from outmoded values, Belsey offers a personal prescription for a more open future critical practice, less constrained by conventional pieties and expectations. Widely illustrated with examples throughout the text, this lively and accessible account leads the way to a broad and inclusive cultural criticism.

Unpublished endorsement

"A pleasure to read from start to finish. This book will touch even sedated nerves, and bring energy and cheer to anyone who cares about reading, and about thinking about reading or anything else." —Michael Wood, Princeton University "This is a hugely appealing book. It is at once glitteringly clear and intellectually adventurous, and the whole thing hums with a sociable impulse of delight." —Steven Connor, Birkbeck College, London "A terrific book–incisive and challenging, accessible and lucid. It should make a stir." —Coppélia Kahn, Brown University "Belsey is uniquely qualified both to reexamine the problems confronting a post-humanist cultural criticism and to reformulate the intellectual and political responsibilities they entail. This book does not disappoint expectations. It is a highly readable, utterly compelling polemic, and I cannot recommend it enough." —Matthew Beaumont, University College, London