The Character of Criticism

Through a series of detailed and intimate intellectual portraits of leading critics - Elaine Scarry, Martha Nussbaum, Slavoj Zizek, and Edward Said - Harpham unfolds the complex and indirect ways in which human character is expressed in criticism. A final chapter on 'Criticism in a State of Terror' assesses the contemporary situation. "The Character of Criticism" represents not just a snapshot of contemporary criticism but a fresh approach to criticism itself that clarifies the stakes involved for writers and readers of criticism alike. It does so not by making difficult thinking easy but by making it stranger - more idiosyncratic, exotic, and singular.