December 16, 2005

Literary Aesthetics: the Very Idea

By LINDSAY WATERS

Trying to figure out what's up with American literary scholarship — I mean the writing coming out of colleges that relates to literature — is difficult. This stuff cannot be understood by the norms of healthy literary criticism as it has been practiced from Aristotle to Helen Vendler.

Ever since it became professional and, for the most part, lost touch with the readers who have fostered the little-magazine criticism that reaches back to The Spectator, today's

Digital or Print Subscription

Web Pass

Already have an account? Log In Now.