Matthew Arnold suggests how a thoroughgoing Platonism might help us think through art, criticism, and more: “the application of ideas … More
Tag: Criticism
230. (William Empson)
In the blog posts lately, I’ve discussed literature as happening when an author gets a condition of judgment inside of … More
225. Suspending Words
Within David Runciman’s rapidly swirling, but nonetheless breezy, work of political science, How Democracy Ends is an ethical anxiety, and … More
214. (T.S. Eliot)
When someone says that something possesses the quality of the literary, or refers to the literary or even artistic imagination, … More
193. (Marius Bewley)
Marius Bewley is probably little remembered nowadays; a literary critic of the mid-century, whose critical principles were indebted mostly to … More
191. (Samuel Johnson)
Samuel Johnson has never held me in magnetic thrall as he does so many of the critics I admire. He … More
187. (Charles Williams)
When anyone remembers Charles Williams these days, it is probably for one of two reasons. Either they know of Williams … More
171. (T.S. Eliot)
Among Eliot’s staunchest and nimblest readers, Christopher Ricks was unrelenting in his 1978 attack on Eliot’s late essay, “What … More
166. (Christopher Ricks)
Ricks’ idiosyncratic, essentially inimitable (though it is irresistible, and can be valuable, to imitate its more superficial mannerisms and habits) … More
156. (Hannah Ginsborg)
My limited experience reading contemporary philosophers has convinced me that Wittgenstein, Kant, and Aristotle need to be read alongside one … More
Critical Provisions 