Literary Criticism

"Writing only leads to more writing." — Colette

Who Is This Writing For? On Elaine Castillo’s “How to Read Now”
Kathy Chow reviews Elaine Castillo’s new collection of essays, “How To Read Now.”
Kathy ChowAug 9, 2022
- Literary Criticism
- Memoir & Essay
Anthropocene Gothic
Steven Shaviro reviews "Dark Scenes from Damaged Earth," a new academic collection of weird ecocriticism edited by Justin D. Edwards, Rune Graulund, and Johan Höglund.
Steven ShaviroAug 6, 2022
Into the Maelstrom
The long-prophesied “death of the author” has made us all authors of unceasing social narratives.
Jared Marcel PollenJul 18, 2022
- Literary Criticism
A Call to Wake Up: On Viktor Shklovsky’s “On the Theory of Prose”
Jason DeYoung reads Shushan Avagyan’s new translation of Viktor Shklovsky’s classic work, “On the Theory of Prose.”
Jason DeYoungJul 3, 2022
- Literary Criticism
What You Would Think of as Noise: On Matthew G. Kirschenbaum’s “Bitstreams: The Future of Digital Literary Heritage”
Kelly Baker Josephs reviews Matthew G. Kirschenbaum’s “Bitstreams: The Future of Digital Literary Heritage.”
Kelly Baker JosephsJul 1, 2022
- Literary Criticism
’Til Death Do Us Part: On Eugenie Brinkema’s “Life-Destroying Diagrams”
Alexandra Kingston-Reese charts “Life-Destroying Diagrams,” the new book by Eugenie Brinkema.
Alexandra Kingston-ReeseJun 25, 2022
- Literary Criticism
An Art of Variety: A Response to Richard Joseph
Antonio J. Ferraro responds to Richard Joseph on the state of contemporary literary criticism, online and elsewhere.
Antonio J. FerraroMay 31, 2022
- Literary Criticism
The Literatures of Irish America: On Joe Cleary’s World-Systems Scholarship
Matthew Eatough assesses two new books by Joe Cleary, “Modernism, Empire, World Literature” and “The Irish Expatriate Novel in Late Capitalist Globalization.”
Matthew EatoughMay 30, 2022
- Literary Criticism
You Must Change Your Writing Style: Ward Farnsworth’s Guidebooks to English Virtuosity and Ancient Philosophy
Our culture is preoccupied with content to the almost total exclusion of form, and that’s bad.
Colin MarshallMay 22, 2022
- Literary Criticism
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 NeilsonMay 2, 2022
- Literary 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 ValentineApr 14, 2022
- Literary 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 WilhelmApr 7, 2022
- Literary Criticism