Poetic Critique: Encounters with Art and Literature (Issn)

Poetic critique – is that not an oxymoron? Do these two forms of behavior, the poetic and the critical, not pull in different, even opposite, directions? For many scholars working in the humanities today, they largely do, but that has not always been the case. Friedrich Schlegel, for one, believed that critique worthy of its name must itself be poetic. Only then would it stand a chance of responding adequately to the work of art. Taking Schlegel’s idea of __poetische Kritik__ as a starting point, this volume reflects on the possibility of drawing these alleged opposites closer together. In light of current debates about the legacy of critique, it investigates whether a concept such as poetic critique (or poetic criticism) lends itself to enriching our intellectual practice by engaging with the poetic potential of criticism and the critical value of art and literature. Die Schriftenreihe der Friedrich Schlegel Graduiertenschule für literaturwissenschaftliche Studien an der Freien Universität Berlin steht für eine international ausgerichtete Literaturwissenschaft, die sich von der ausschließlichen Fixierung auf die westliche Tradition gelöst hat und auf die europäischen, amerikanischen, arabischen und asiatischen Literaturen der Moderne, des Mittelalters und des Altertums zielt. Das Publikationsforum präsentiert Monographien und Sammelbände, die eine exemplarische Leistung in ihrem Fachgebiet darstellen und zugleich über dessen Grenzen ins Gemeinsame der Philologien und in die Literaturen der Welt hinausweisen. Ziel ist die Integration von einzelwissenschaftlicher und komparatistischer Forschung unter Einbeziehung benachbarter diskursiver Praktiken. Das Leitbild Friedrich Schlegels verpflichtet hierbei zum Studium literarischer Kulturen in universalpoetischer Perspektive. Wissenschaftlicher Beirat: - Nicholas Boyle (University of Cambridge) - Elisabeth Bronfen (Universität Zürich) - Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (Stanford University) - Renate Lachmann (Universität Konstanz) - Glenn W. Most (Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa) - Jean-Marie Schaeffer (EHESS Paris) - Janet A. Walker (Rutgers University) - David Wellbery (University of Chicago) - Christopher Young (University of Cambridge) Contents 7 What Is Poetic Critique? 9 Why Adding ‘Poetic’ to ‘Critique’ Adds Nothing to Critique 15 Schlegel’s Words, Rightly Used 27 Storytelling and Forgetfulness 43 Poetry, Critique, Imitation 53 “Echo Reconciles” 65 On Not Forcing the Question: Criticism and Playing Along 73 La Chambre Poétique 87 The Silence of the Concepts (in Meillassoux’s After Finitude and Gottlob Frege) 113 Theater as Critical Praxis: Interruption and Citability 133 Historicism’s Forms: The Aesthetics of Critique 153 Poetic Criticism and the Work of Fiction: Goethe, Joyce, and Coetzee 163 Surface, Distance, Depth: The Text and its Outside 183 Contributors 211 This book seeks to breathe new life into Friedrich Schlegel's idea of 'poetic critique,' but also asks about its limitations. What forms might critique take when practiced poetically? Can this practice be rigorous enough to maintain a right of citizenship in the academy? How can the notion of poetic critique intervene in current debates on critique and post-critique? These essays offer a variety of new perspectives on these and similar questions