Readings in dispute in contemporary times: post-criticism as anti-criticism and the function of criticism today
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1984-1124.i34p54-80Keywords:
Contemporary literary studies, Criticism, Post-criticism, Anti-criticismAbstract
The purpose of this article is to discuss three texts representing influential positions in the current state of criticism in the field of literary studies: “Surface Reading” (2009), by Stephen Best and Sharon Marcus; “Context stinks!” (2011) by Rita Felski; and “Paranoid reading and reparative reading, or you’re so paranoid, you probably think this essay is about you” (2003), by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. The essays had repercussions by taking a contrary position in relation to depth models of literary analysis, to use Fredric Jameson's term (1991); in other words, these essays defend ways of reading the work that, each in its own way, refuse the exercise of literary interpretation that, according to them, seeks the meaning of the work in a deeper reading. Due to their positionings and the arguments they articulate, such texts will be considered here as representative of an anti-critical stance. The debate will start from a close reading of some of their arguments and will seek to map the theoretical position they propose.
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SEDGWICK, E. Kosofsky. “Paranoid reading and reparative reading, or you’re so paranoid, you probably think this essay is about you”. In: ______. Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, p. 123-151.
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