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In 1993, John Guillory published “Cultural Capital,” a dense study of the then-raging canon wars that has become a stealth classic. Now, in a follow-up, “Professing Criticism,” he takes on an even bigger question: What is literary criticism — specifically, the kind of highly specialized, theoretically sophisticated textual readings generated by academic critics — really for?
But what literary criticism is not for, he argues, is what many of his colleagues think it is for: changing the world.
“When people read the book, I suspect they’re going to be upset,” he said in an interview. “They’re going to say, ‘You’re saying we don’t do anything, we accomplish nothing.’ That’s not what I’m saying.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/arts/john-guillory-literary-criticism.html
But what literary criticism is not for, he argues, is what many of his colleagues think it is for: changing the world.
“When people read the book, I suspect they’re going to be upset,” he said in an interview. “They’re going to say, ‘You’re saying we don’t do anything, we accomplish nothing.’ That’s not what I’m saying.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/arts/john-guillory-literary-criticism.html