Literary Criticism

"Writing only leads to more writing." — Colette

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 KingFeb 11, 2022
- Literary Criticism
Deadline “Ulysses”
How James Joyce completed his great novel by his 40th birthday.
Philip Keel GeheberFeb 2, 2022
- Literary Criticism
Everyone’s a Critic
Richard Joseph interrogates the contemporary life of the critical hatchet job.
Richard JosephJan 13, 2022
- Literary 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, Christian Lorentzen, Ismail Muhammad, Jane Hu, Julian LucasDec 31, 2021
- Literary Criticism
“Only Lovers Live in the Present”: On the Notebooks of Patricia Highsmith
The noir author’s personal notebooks have a claim to be her life’s major work.
Robert MintoDec 16, 2021
- Literary Criticism
Sankofa and the Afterlives of Makerere
Panashe Chigumadzi considers the generation that emerged after the Makerere University for the Conference of African Writers of English Expression.
Panashe ChigumadziDec 13, 2021
- Literary Criticism
Relentless Erudition: On Seamus Deane’s “Small World: Ireland, 1798–2018”
The final collection of essays from a great Irish scholar.
Conor McCarthyNov 29, 2021
- Literary 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 AtteberyNov 27, 2021
- Literary Criticism
Schadenfreude Without Shade
Josh Emmons tries to name an embarrassing feeling about art: the sad, amused, "not-schadenfreude" when excellent art is ignored.
Josh EmmonsNov 23, 2021
- Literary Criticism
Living in the World: Peter Brooks on Balzac
Balzac’s great “Comédie humaine” offers a middle way between speculative fiction and autofiction.
Elena Comay del JuncoNov 21, 2021
- Literary Criticism
Literature as System: On Yuri Tynianov
Marjorie Perloff revisits the criticism of Russian Formalist Yuri Tynianov, whose essays have been collected in English for the first time.
Marjorie PerloffOct 28, 2021
- Literary Criticism
A Labor We Will Never See
It is very hard to talk properly about money in relation to creative work.
Katie da Cunha LewinOct 27, 2021
- Literary Criticism