Literary Criticism

This Week: Moving Feminism Forward This Week: Moving Feminism Forward

We’ve come a long way, but we’ve a long way to go in progress for women’s rights.

Mar 9, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Katrina vanden Heuvel

Passing the Signal Along Passing the Signal Along

The task of a critic has to do with the nature of the knowledge we call art.

Feb 28, 2013 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz

Making Strange: On Victor Shklovsky

Making Strange: On Victor Shklovsky Making Strange: On Victor Shklovsky

A Russian novelist’s fight, in life and art, to see the world afresh in all its cruelty and splendor.

Feb 5, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Ben Ehrenreich

Till the Knowing Ends: On William Gass

Till the Knowing Ends: On William Gass Till the Knowing Ends: On William Gass

In Life Sentences, William Gass shows that consciousness needs to be stressed to be strengthened.

Mar 7, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Joanna Scott

John Leonard

Reading John Leonard: A Tribute Reading John Leonard: A Tribute

For the critic John Leonard, “books are where we go alone to complicate ourselves.”

Feb 7, 2012 / Books & the Arts / E.L. Doctorow

The Idler: On Geoff Dyer The Idler: On Geoff Dyer

Freedom to do just what he pleases defines the life and writing of Geoff Dyer.

Apr 21, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Scott Sherman

Back Talk: Terry Castle Back Talk: Terry Castle

A conversation with the author of The Professor about her affair with an older woman and the journals of Susan Sontag.

Jan 28, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Christine Smallwood

Adaptation: On Literary Darwinism Adaptation: On Literary Darwinism

If art is a product of the mind, and the mind a product of evolution, is art a product of evolution?

May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz

Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis’s Narnia

Laura Miller's study of C.S. Lewis falls short of providing a coherent theory of Narnia's magic.

May 6, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Jordan Davis

Back Talk: Elaine Showalter Back Talk: Elaine Showalter

A conversation with the author of A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx.

Mar 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Christine Smallwood

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