Word: crit
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Like any specialized field of study, literary theory has its own specialized language. Because there are no hard-and-fast rules for what is right and what is wrong, this language is undeniably subject to abuse, and I have had to sit through my own fair share of lit crit nonsense. However, it is a completely unjustified jump from saying that literary theory is sometimes misused to saying that the field as a whole is without purpose. If Munro were to put down his Grisham and read some challenging literature or some relevant theory he might find that there...
Like any specialized field of study, literary theory has its own specialized language. Because there are no hard-and-fast rules for what is right and what is wrong, this language is undeniably subject to abuse, and I have had to sit through my own fair share of lit crit nonsense. However, it is a completely unjustified jump from saying that literary theory is sometimes misused to saying that the field as a whole is without purpose. If Munro were to put down his Grisham and read some challenging literature or some relevant theory he might find that there...
...controversy over the death and estate of the suicide poet Sylvia Plath to illuminate brilliantly these questions of authority, here the justice system becomes her battleground; lawyers dispute not over matters of law but something more beautiful and strange, the power of stories to overwhelm the truth. The lit-crit quibbling of this approach at times quickly becomes tedious. Still, these cerebral arguments pale beside Malcolm's acute character studies, little gems of quirk and nuance like an eccentric bolo tie on a dreary elderly gentleman that leavens the confusion of the story with humor and grace...
Finally, it is interesting to note Oppenheim's selective blindness in the observance of BGLTSA posters. While the phrase "oppressive paradigm" may remain for him an amusing snippet of lit-crit jargon, the pervasiveness of outspoken heterosexuality on this campus cannot be denied. Has Oppenheim never seen a heterosexually risqué poster for a Harvard dance, a cappella concert or theatrical production? While innocuous enough, the prevelance (and thus the privileging) of heterosexual behavior and the attendant invisibility of homosexuality legitimizes a climate of homophobia. If, on the other hand, Oppenheim is offended solely by the word "vulva...
...conservative Bradley Foundation, which has subsidized the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute as well as the authors of The Real Anita Hill and The Bell Curve. Alter insists that the foundation never interferes in his group's operations. A bigger problem for him is that ideological lit-crit is so popular within the profession. Can a small band of traditionalists hold it off? They look for signs of hope. In an issue last year of Lingua Franca, Duke professor Frank Lentricchia, a major figure in the politicization of literary studies, poured out his misgivings about "the pounding chatter...