The Movement of the Mind: On Jonathan F. S. Post’s “Elizabeth Bishop: A Very Short Introduction”Andrew Neilson gets under the skin of Jonathan F. S. Post’s “Elizabeth Bishop: A Very Short Introduction.”...ANDREW NEILSONLITERARY CRITICISM
The Madeleine’s Metapragmatics: On Michael Lucey’s “What Proust Heard: Novels and the Ethnography of Talk”When your dinner-party host offers you a madeleine, how do you respond, and why?...COLTON VALENTINELITERARY CRITICISM
Breeding at the End of the World: On Aaron Matz’s “The Novel and the Problem of New Life”Lindsay Wilhelm thinks about what it means to procreate in a time of impending doom in a review of Aaron Matz’s “The Novel and the Problem of New Life.”...LINDSAY WILHELMLITERARY CRITICISM
Erasure as Empowerment: A Conversation with Kristina Marie DarlingThe prolific poet-critic discusses her latest book of essays, “Silent Refusal.”...MOLLY GAUDRYLITERARY CRITICISM
Super-Close Reading: On Marjorie Perloff’s “Infrathin: An Experiment in Micropoetics”This superb critical study explores “what makes poetry with a capital P so captivating and indispensable.”...TAL GOLDFAJNLITERARY CRITICISM
Near-Coincidences: Digression and the Literature of the Age of the InternetGianluca Didino remembers W. G. Sebald through two recent books....GIANLUCA DIDINOLITERARY CRITICISM
“Am I Like Ulysses?”: On José Vergara’s “All Future Plunges to the Past: James Joyce in Russian Literature”Nataliya Karageorgos reviews José Vergara's "All Future Plunges to the Past," a new book about James Joyce's influence on Russian literature....NATALIYA KARAGEORGOSLITERARY CRITICISM
Refuge and Connection: On “Tolstoy Together: 85 Days of War and Peace with Yiyun Li”Christine Jacobson finds a “convivial companion,” as well as catharsis, in “Tolstoy Together: 85 Days of War and Peace with Yiyun Li,” edited by Brigid Hughes....CHRISTINE JACOBSONLITERARY CRITICISM
Reading for TraumaWhy are there so many amateur therapists in today's fiction?...CHRISTINA FOGARASILITERARY CRITICISM
Caring Versus Caregiving: On Talia Schaffer’s “Communities of Care: The Social Ethics of Victorian Fiction”A new book about caregiving in Victorian novels sheds valuable light on the crisis of healthcare today....RACHAEL SCARBOROUGH KINGLITERARY CRITICISM
Deadline “Ulysses”How James Joyce completed his great novel by his 40th birthday....PHILIP KEEL GEHEBERLITERARY CRITICISM
Everyone’s a CriticRichard Joseph interrogates the contemporary life of the critical hatchet job....RICHARD JOSEPHLITERARY CRITICISM
Semipublic Intellectual Sessions: “Under Review”A transcript of the panel discussion "Under Review" — a conversation in the Semipublic Intellectual Sessions, which took place on November 4....AARON BADY, BORIS DRALYUK, JANE HU, CHRISTIAN LORENTZEN, JULIAN LUCAS, ISMAIL MUHAMMADLITERARY CRITICISM
“Only Lovers Live in the Present”: On the Notebooks of Patricia HighsmithThe noir author’s personal notebooks have a claim to be her life’s major work....ROBERT MINTOLITERARY CRITICISM
Sankofa and the Afterlives of MakererePanashe Chigumadzi considers the generation that emerged after the Makerere University for the Conference of African Writers of English Expression....PANASHE CHIGUMADZILITERARY CRITICISM
Relentless Erudition: On Seamus Deane’s “Small World: Ireland, 1798–2018”The final collection of essays from a great Irish scholar....CONOR MCCARTHYLITERARY CRITICISM
Who Controls the Narrative?: On David M. Higgins’s “Reverse Colonization: Science Fiction, Imperial Fantasy, and Alt-Victimhood”Higgins’s new book examines the reactionary imagination in contemporary science fiction....BRIAN ATTEBERYLITERARY CRITICISM
Schadenfreude Without ShadeJosh Emmons tries to name an embarrassing feeling about art: the sad, amused, "not-schadenfreude" when excellent art is ignored....JOSH EMMONSLITERARY CRITICISM
Living in the World: Peter Brooks on BalzacBalzac’s great “Comédie humaine” offers a middle way between speculative fiction and autofiction....ELENA COMAY DEL JUNCOLITERARY CRITICISM
Literature as System: On Yuri TynianovMarjorie Perloff revisits the criticism of Russian Formalist Yuri Tynianov, whose essays have been collected in English for the first time....MARJORIE PERLOFFLITERARY CRITICISM
A Labor We Will Never SeeIt is very hard to talk properly about money in relation to creative work....KATIE DA CUNHA LEWINLITERARY CRITICISM
Love Objects: On the Poetry and Prose of Aaron KuninGriffin Shoglow-Rubenstein considers the “organizing concerns” of Aaron Kunin....GRIFFIN SHOGLOW-RUBENSTEINLITERARY CRITICISM
The Naïf Goes to the Everything Store: On Mark McGurl’s “Everything and Less”Dan Sinykin finds cautious hope in “Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon” by Mark McGurl....DAN SINYKINLITERARY CRITICISM
The 14th-Century Sexual Revolution: On Guido Ruggiero’s “Love and Sex in the Time of Plague”Dan Turello considers "Love and Sex in the Time of Plague," the recently published book by Guido Ruggiero....DAN TURELLOLITERARY CRITICISM