Criticism After Critique : Aesthetics, Literature, and the Political

Presenting different ways to imagine criticism without critique, this collection provides a survey of both the difficult times facing ideological critique and the ways in which literary criticism and aesthetics have been affected by changing attitudes toward critique. While critique is certainly not dead, evidence can be seen of its decline and - in its place - a revival of interest in literary criticism that bears only a distant resemblance to the political critique that has dominated literary studies for so many years. This volume raises questions about the fate of the political dimensions of literary criticism amidst a sea of change in attitudes toward ideological critique - and ultimately compels one to pursue further the question: What is criticism after critique? Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction....Pages 1-11 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 Criticism and Critique....Pages 15-25 Doing Literary Criticism and Making Value Judgments....Pages 27-43 Appreciating Appreciation....Pages 45-65 Bumps on the Head, Touchstones of Intimacy, and the Vulnerability of the Critic....Pages 67-96 Front Matter....Pages 97-97 Critique and Its Postnational Aftermath....Pages 99-112 The Criticism of Postcolonial Critique....Pages 113-126 Critiques of Early Modern Criticism....Pages 127-140 Ideology is Not All....Pages 141-153 Front Matter....Pages 155-155 Who Killed Critique?....Pages 157-170 Living in an Aesthetic Regime....Pages 171-182 Jacques Rancière....Pages 183-208 Afterword....Pages 209-215 Back Matter....Pages 217-229