I WANT to talk about the historical interpretation of literature — that is, about the interpretation of literature in its social, economic, and political aspects. To begin with, it will be worth while ...

This foundational course provides a thorough introduction to theatre and drama study. It is geared towards, though not limited to, theatre majors (or prospective majors) in their first year. Dramatic ...

I agree that the rehabilitation of historicism is a welcome trend, but I would err on the side of caution if what is meant by rehabilitation resembles Morris Dickstein’s “Literary Theory and ...

Mary Poovey, a professor of English and director of the Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge at New York University, examines a parallel between the foundations of contemporary ...

Purchase this and other timeless New Criterion essays in our hard-copy reprint series. As the titles indicate, Wellek’s subject here is the history of the practice of English and American literary ...

The scene: a graduate seminar in literature sometime in the eerily becalmed days of the mid-1990s, when for an aspirant to an academic job, the future seemed poised to break in one of two ...

“ THE criticism which alone can much help us for the future,” wrote Mr. Arnold in his luciferous manner, “ is a criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and spiritual purposes, one ...

John Guillory’s “Cultural Capital,” published amid the 1990s canon wars, became a classic. In a follow-up, “Professing Criticism,” he takes on his field’s deep funk. By Jennifer Schuessler Thirty ...