To Become What One Is

In the twentieth century, criticism flourished in the academy in the English language from the 1930s to the 1960s, but gradually a hyperprofessionalized discourse purporting to be criticism took its place. The problem was exacerbated because people misunderstand literary theory thinking it superior to criticism. Big mistake. Theory proper begins its life as criticism, criticism that has staying power. Central to criticism as Kant argued is judgment. Judgment is based on feeling provoked by the artwork in our encounters with artworks. This essay talks about the author’s encounter with Mary Gaitskill’s novel Veronica. The critical judgment puts the artwork into a milieu. This essay argues the case for the holism of critical judgments versus what the author calls Bitsiness as Usual, the fragmentation of our understanding of our encounters with artworks. The author subjects both Paul de Man and the New Historicists to severe attacks

Aesthetics · Art · Art criticism · Art history · Constructive criticism · Criticism · Epistemology · Feeling · Literary criticism · Literary science · Literary theory · Literature · Mistake · Performance art · Political science · Power (physics · Sociological criticism · Sociology · Theatre criticism · Law · Philosophy · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism · Theatre and Performance Studies · Visual Culture and Art Theory

• Literary theory

  Terry Eagleton•Literary theory•1983

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• A New Literary History of America

  Open Access•Alan Ackerman, Emilio Bizzi et al.•New Literary History of America•2012

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• Literary Theory

  Jonathan Culler, Jonathan D Culler•Literary theory•2011

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• Theory of the Gimmick

  Open Access•Sianne Ngai•Theory of the Gimmick•2020

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• On Bullshit

  Harry G Frankfurt•On Bullshit•2005

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• Early Writings, 1910–1917

  Walter Benjamin, Howard Eiland•Work of Art in the Age of Its…•2011

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• The Philosophy of Logical Atomism

  Open Access•Bertrand Russell, Landon D C Elkind et al.•The Philosophy of Logical Atomism•2018

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• Moy Sand and Gravel

  Paul Muldoon•Yale journal of criticism/ The…•2002

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• A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance

  Jean H Hagstrum, Bernard Weinberg•Italica•1962

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• L'altre stelle

  Lindsay Waters•Italica•1978

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• Practicing New Historicism

  Colleen Gallagher, Catherine Gallagher et al.•Practicing New Historicism•2000

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• Thinking with Kant’s Critique of Judgment

  Michel Chaouli•Thinking with Kant's Critique of…•2017

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• In Search of Cultural History

  Leonard B Meyer, E H Gombrich•History and Theory•1970

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• The Postmodern Condition

  Jean-François Lyotard, Geoff Bennington et al.•1984

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• Theory of the Gimmick

  Sianne Ngai•Critical Inquiry•2017

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