Presenter:
Rumors of the death of criticism have been greatly exaggerated. It is, after all, one of the oldest of our disciplines, with roots that reach beyond Aristotle. Criticism changes in function over time, as Matthew Arnold suggested, but we cannot do without it. Indeed, it arguably plays a more active role contemporary culture than ever before. But how to do criticism? How to do it now? Departing from I.A. Richards’ influential idea of “practical criticism” as a starting point, but rejecting his invidious distinction between literary criticism and film criticism, this talk will offer some answers to these questions with examples from poetry, fiction, drama, and cinema.