All essays tagged:

Literary criticism

Review: Simon Petchon Clive James and Philip Larkin
  • Somewhere Becoming Rain: Collected Writings on Philip Larkin by Clive James Picador
    160pp
    Published 2019

The Middlebrow Men: Clive James on Philip Larkin

This, Clive James’s final book, is a collection of his writings on Larkin and his work. James takes his title from the final words of Larkin’s ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ (1959). The ninety four pages, which include copies of one manuscript letter and two typed letters from Larkin to James, don’t offer very much book for your money, but you do get Clive James, who’s always good value. His explanation of why Jack Nicholson is the only Hollywood actor appropriate to play Larkin onscreen justifies the price of admission.
May. 2020 • • • •
Review: Marc Mierowskyon Lyndsey Stonebridge
  • Placeless People: Writing, Rights, and Refugees by Lyndsey Stonebridge Oxford University Press
    272pp
    Published October, 2018
    ISBN 9780198797005
  • Refuge Beyond Reach: How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum Seekers by David Scott FitzGerald Oxford University Press
    368pp
    Published June, 2019
    ISBN 9780190874155

The Trouble with Strangers

‘Writers and metaphors might not lead us directly to a change in policy. But that is not to say that writing cannot do things in the world. It can shift our frame of reference, for one.’
Nov. 2019 • • • •
Review: Ben Juerson Terry Eagleton
  • Humour by Terry Eagleton Yale University Press
    224pp
    Published May, 2019
    ISBN 9780300243147
  • Silliness: A Serious History by Peter Timms Wakefield Press
    246pp
    Published February, 2019
    ISBN 9781743056455

Stepping on Rakes: Terry Eagleton’s Humour and Peter Timms’ Silliness

Confronted with the prospect of civilizational collapse, both Humour and Silliness end with exhortations for more humour.
Oct. 2019 • •
Provocations Essay: Brian Castroon reception

Blindness and Deafness in Literary Reception

Unvarnished ‘truth’ in literature is of course only relative to the position of the speaker and often used as a bludgeoning tool.
Jul. 2018 • • •
Review: Amanda Tinkon Literature and Disability
  • The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Disability
  • Cambridge Companion to Literature and Disability by Clare Barker, Stuart Murray (editors) Cambridge University Press
    280pp
    Published November, 2017
    ISBN 9781107458130

Where are all the disabled writers?

One of the high points of my life was the first time I held my very own book in my…
May. 2018 • •
Review: James Jiangon Joseph North
  • Literary Criticism A Concise Political History by Joseph North
  • Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History by Joseph North Harvard University Press
    272pp
    Published May, 2017
    ISBN 9780674967731

So Far, So Left?: Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History by Joseph North

Joseph North’s Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History begins with the premise that ‘very few people … start reading a…
Mar. 2018 • •
Critic Watch Essay: Ben Etherington

Craveñho’s Universe

‘The first question to ask of the Craven phenomenon is not “why?” but “how?”‘ Critic Watch on performative criticism.
Oct. 2017 • • •
Review: Peter Cravenon Daniel Swift
  • The Bughouse by Daniel Swift book cover
  • The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound by Daniel Swift Harvill Secker
    299pp
    $59.99 AU
    Published February, 2017
    ISBN 9781846558511

Old Master, Old Monster: The Bughouse by Daniel Swift

Ezra Pound was always an extraordinary figure on the landscape of modern literature. What was it Yeats said? More deliberate…
Aug. 2017 • • •
Essay: Michelle Cahillon criticism

I Am Doubt Itself: Criticism, Narrative, Ethics

Can we separate the authority of the authored text from that of the critic whose skill is to establish credibility by providing reasoning for her appraisal?
May. 2017 • •
Essay: Emmett Stinsonon criticism

The Ethics of Evaluation

‘is this book worth reading? A book review—while it can be many things—is not really a review unless it offers some form of explicit or implicit evaluation in a way that meaningfully answers this question.’
May. 2017 • • •

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