Humanities Day 2016 - Keynote Address

James Chandler

tpopelka — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 13:50:04 +0000

Presentation:

Doing Criticism / Doing Without Criticism

Session:

English Language and Literature / Cinema and Media Studies

James Chandler is the Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Cinema and Media Studies and English Language and Literature; he is also the Director of both the Franke Institute for the Humanities and the Center for Disciplinary Innovation. Chandler has published widely on literature from the eighteenth century onwards on topics in Irish studies, the Romantic Movement, and more recently on cinema. His current research includes a study of the works of Maria Edgeworth—a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adult and children's literature—and a forthcoming book, How to Do Criticism.

Doing Criticism / Doing Without Criticism

tpopelka — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 17:40:13 +0000

Presenter:

James Chandler

Keynote Address

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.