Literary Criticism

"Writing only leads to more writing." — Colette

Near-Coincidences: Digression and the Literature of the Age of the Internet
Gianluca Didino remembers W. G. Sebald through two recent books.
Gianluca DidinoMar 20, 2022
- Literary 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 KarageorgosFeb 28, 2022
- Literary 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 JacobsonFeb 25, 2022
- Literary Criticism
Reading for Trauma
Why are there so many amateur therapists in today's fiction?
Christina FogarasiFeb 16, 2022
- Literary 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 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