Cited by 1,709Literary Theory and Cultural HermeneuticsHermeneutics and Narrative IdentityContemporary Literature and Criticism

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The Limits of Critique

Felski, Rita·2015·University of Chicago Press eBooks

DOI 10.7208/chicago/9780226294179.001.0001

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Abstract

Why must critics unmask and demystify literary works? Why do they believe that language is always withholding some truth, that critic's task is to reveal unsaid or repressed? In this book, Rita Felski examines critique, dominant form of interpretation in literary studies, and situates it as but one method among many, a method with strong allure-but also definite limits. Felski argues that critique is a sensibility best captured by Paul Ricoeur's phrase the hermeneutics of suspicion. She shows how this suspicion toward texts forecloses many potential readings while providing no guarantee of rigorous or radical thought. Instead, she suggests, literary scholars should try what she calls postcritical reading: rather than looking behind a text for hidden causes and motives, literary scholars should place themselves in front of it and reflect on what it suggests and makes possible. By bringing critique down to earth and exploring new modes of interpretation, The Limits of Critique offers a fresh approach to relationship between artistic works and social world.

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“In the recent past, not only religious and anthropological studies (Felski 2009, 2011, 2015), but also critical approaches to literature have drawn back to Ricoeur’s method of rigorous reading »performed against the grain,« as Rita Felski (2011, p. 217) pointed out.”
BackgroundMethod

Authors: Felski, R.
Corresponding author: Felski, Rita
ORCID: Felski, Rita
Venue: University of Chicago Press eBooks
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2015
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226294179.001.0001
OpenAlex: W2344967523
Cited by: 1,709
References: 0
Citations by year: 2026: 138 · 2025: 211 · 2024: 172 · 2023: 176 · 2022: 143 · 2021: 170 · 2020: 158 · 2019: 255 · 2018: 165 · 2017: 95 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 3
FWCI: 269.09
Type: book
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: University of Chicago Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Literary Theory and Cultural Hermeneutics
Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity
Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Contemporary Literature and Criticism
Keywords: literary criticism, critique, hermeneutics of suspicion, Paul Ricoeur, interpretation, demystification, literary theory, art and society

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The Limits of Critique

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