Description
Book SynopsisA Future for Criticism considers why fiction gives so much pleasure, and the neglect of this issue incontemporary criticism.
- 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
- Proposes a new path for future criticism, more open to reflecting on the pleasures of fiction
- Written in a clear, jargon-free style, and illustrated throughout with numerous examples
Trade Review"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)
Table of ContentsPreface 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
