Beyond the Blurb (Forthcoming, Dec 2016)--Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction........................................................................9

Part 1: Critical Issues.....................................................17

                     Close Reading • 18

                     The Authority of Criticism • 21

                     Aesthetic Autonomy • 29

                     The Authority of Critics • 34

                     Blogs and Alternative Literary Criticism • 39

Part 2: Critical Failures...................................................49

                     James Wood • 50

                     Christopher Hitchens • 65

                     Morris Dickstein and Historical Criticism • 73           

                     Hershel Parker: Criticism vs. Scholarship • 79

                     Postmodern Fiction and Academic Criticism • 84

Part 3: Critical Successes...........................................93

                     Susan Sontag • 94

                     Harold Bloom • 105

                     Richard Poirer • 114         

                     William Gass • 120

                     Michael Gorra’s Portrait of a Novel and “In-Between” Criticism • 124

                     David Winters’s Infinite Fictions • 129

                     S.D. Chrostowska’s Matches • 134

Bibliography........................................................................143

Acknowledgments.........................................................149

Comments

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Can't wait for this.