English Inside and Out The Places of Literary Criticism

Given the current publicity accorded "tenured radicals" and "profscam," "multiculturalism" and "political correctness," "cultural literacy" and "the closing of the American mind" in popular newspapers, magazines, and books, how do some of the leading proponents of literary studies envision the once and future state of the discipline? In an electronic culture that marginalizes the book outside the academy, and amid diverse theoretical debates about the canon inside departments of English, where is the profession going and what are our responsibilities inside and outside the classroom? The first group of essays in this collection --by Alvin Kernan, Leslie Fieldler, and Geoffrey Hartman,--establishes the problems facing literary critics seeking to negotiate between the contending intellectual and political forces currently shaping interpretive practices. The second section presents accounts by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Jane Gallop which explore the controversies in African-American and feminist criticism and illuminate area studies that have gained prominence in these disciplines. The final section is a series of sometimes sarcastic, sometimes somber mediations, by Jonathan Golberg, John Brenkman, Stanley Fish, Gerald Graff, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick, which document the influence of cultural and gay studies on scholars, dramatizing their varied efforts to establish the vital role of professors inside the classroom as well as outside the academy.Gubar, Susan is the author of 'English Inside and Out The Places of Literary Criticism' with ISBN 9780415906685 and ISBN 0415906687.