The Limits of Critique

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism
Cover of the book The Limits of Critique by Rita Felski, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Rita Felski ISBN: 9780226294179
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: October 20, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Rita Felski
ISBN: 9780226294179
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: October 20, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Books Do Furnish a Room by Rita Felski
Cover of the book Thoughts on Machiavelli by Rita Felski
Cover of the book Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality by Rita Felski
Cover of the book The Religious Question in Modern China by Rita Felski
Cover of the book Aesthetics at Large by Rita Felski
Cover of the book Teachers of the People by Rita Felski
Cover of the book The Challenger Launch Decision by Rita Felski
Cover of the book Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought by Rita Felski
Cover of the book What Nostalgia Was by Rita Felski
Cover of the book Top 40 Democracy by Rita Felski
Cover of the book What Color Is the Sacred? by Rita Felski
Cover of the book The Bourgeois Virtues by Rita Felski
Cover of the book Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 26 by Rita Felski
Cover of the book Why Birds Matter by Rita Felski
Cover of the book Shaped by the State by Rita Felski
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy