The Limits of Critique

Posted on 26 February 2018 by Rita Felski

Why must critics unmask and demystify literary works Why do they believe that language is always withholding some truth, that the critic s task is to reveal the unsaid or repressed In this book, Rita Felski examines critique, the dominant form of interpretation in literary studies, and situates it as but one method among many, a method with strong allure but also definite limits Felski argues that critique is a sensibility best captured by Paul Ricoeur s phrase the hermeneutics of suspicion She shows how this suspicion toward texts forecloses many potential readings while providing no guarantee of rigorous or radical thought Instead, she suggests, literary scholars should try what she calls postcritical reading rather than looking behind a text for hidden causes and motives, literary scholars should place themselves in front of it and reflect on what it suggests and makes possible By bringing critique down to earth and exploring new modes of interpretation, The Limits of Critique offers a fresh approach to the relationship between artistic works and the social world. Best Download The Limits of Critique [ by ] Rita Felski [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr I remember lamenting to my professor about what I felt to be the ruthlessness and unkindness of academia So many times I felt like exasperatedly saying to one person or the other What you re saying might seem contrarian but it doesn t mean you re smart You re just being a dick I had sensed that the almost automatic position was one of suspicion towards the work or the discussion at hand I found it hostile, not exactly in tandem with my own conflict avoidant personality that preferred a I remember lamenting to my professor about what I felt to be the ruthlessness and unkindness of academia So many times I felt like ...An intriguing, compact, and timely discussion of changing trends within literary studies, away from Marxist, feminist, new historicist, and psychoanalytic approaches that look at literary texts with suspicion, seeing them as problematically representative of larger systems of domination Most exciting here are the last two chapters, in which Felski outlines other ways of reading and interpreting literature that avoid some of the pitfalls that she sees in critique The book dovetails nicely with An intriguing, compact, and timely discussion of changing trends within literary studies, away from Marxist, feminist, new historicist, and psychoanalytic approaches that look at literary texts with suspicion, seeing them as problematically representative of larger systems of domination Most exciting here are the last two chapters, in which Felski outlines other ways of reading and interpreting literatur...I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in literary scholarship and pedagogy Felski deftly explores the limits of critique which she connects closely to Ricoeur s concept of the hermeneutics of suspicion as a methodology and critiquiness via Castiglia as a mood of reading In one chapter, she considers the spatial metaphors of digging down...Speaking figuratively and in terms a friend of mine might use I was headbanging with my fist raised the entire time I read this book If you or a family member friend have ever been exposed to high doses of literary criticism and wondered why analyzing the power structures that surround a given literary work isimportant than the aesthetics of the work itself, I particularly recommend this book Or if you re skeptical of any of the following that an absence is automatically evidence of a Speaking figuratively and in terms a friend of mine might use I was headbanging with my fist raised the entire time I read this book If you or a family member friend have ever been exposed to high doses of literary criticism and wondered why analyzing the power structures that surround a given literary work isimportant than the aesthetics of the work itself, I particularly recommend this book Or if you re skeptical of any of the following that an absence is autom...Before I discuss the book itself, I should probably take a minute to mention my background, which had a big effect on my encounter with Felski s argument I m in the field of rhetoric and have been, basically, since I was an undergraduate That means my familiarity with trends in literary studies is limited e.g., I know what New Historicism is but would have a hard time namingthan a couple of its practitioners I ve read some work in gender and postcolonial studies that circulates Before I discuss the book itself, I should probably take a minute to mention my background, which had a big effect on my encounter with Felski s argument I m in the field of rhetoric and have been, basically, since I was an undergraduate That means my familiarity with trends in literary studies is limited e.g., I know what New Historicism is but...Sigh Sigh Sigh Some of us have been saying this for years Reading it made me as angry as the prodigal son s older brother Trying to repentGreat contribution to the growing body of literature which questions the confluence of critical to suspicious reading and the almost axiomatic standing of this mode of engagement with texts in the academy Felski argues for a plurality of post critical modes of reading which are edifying and reparative What sFelski is a gifted writer she talks about the barbed wire of criticism which protects the reader from contamination by texts that are read she identifies the affective delight Great contribution to the growing body of literature which questions the confluence of critical to suspicious reading and the almost axiomatic standing of this mode of engagement with texts in the academy Fels...In critiquing yes, I did read critically, especially as I waded deeper into Felski s pedantic expos on suspicious critique I found the text belabored yet hopeful There s my empathy, sympathy, recognition and identification Obviously, Felski anticipated my restive mood at the beginning of Chapter 4, knowing I felt like toss ing this book aside in a fit of exasperation 117 It took her a long while t...rachel smithin affect and american literature in the age of neoliberalism ja t lienee vastuussa siit ett mit n en lue en kuin ennen deep kelailun lis ks t on aika hauska What would it mean, then, to acknowledge poems and paintings, fictional characters and narrative devices, as actors Clearly, the bogeyman in the closet is a tradition of high minded aestheticism the fear that acknowledging the agency of texts will tip us back into the abyss of a retrograde religion of art and allow a rachel smithin affect and american literature in the age of neoliberalism ja t lienee vastuussa siit ett mit n en lue en kuin ennen deep kelailun lis ks t on aika hauska What would it mean, then, t...The Limits of Critiqueby Rita FelskiChicago and London University Chicago Press, 2015 228 pages Mark WollaegerHoly shit, did I get a lot of pleasure out of Rita Felski s new book Every time a turn of phrase or extended metaphor made me smile I put a smiley face in the margin If I laughed aloud I sometimes circled the smiley face A quick scan of my advance copy reveals twenty three grinning little doofuses scrawled in the margins That sthan one every ten pages I think of them as The Limits of Critiqueby Rita FelskiChicago and London University Chicago...

English
26 February 2018

Rita Felski