A Future for Criticism

A Future for Criticism offers an original approach to the pleasures of fiction, and puts forward an explanation for the neglect of these pleasures in contemporary criticism. Theorist and critic Catherine Belsey argues that current literary commentary singles out thematic issues at the expense of the true motives for reading and theatre–going. As a playful form in which anything can be said, fiction offers, she proposes, exceptionally subtle access to thought–worlds, both past and present. At the same time, it is capable of delivering challenges to the limits of orthodox thinking. Fiction, this engaging manifesto contends, enlists desire. Outlining in a clear, readable style a path that makes a decisive break from outmoded values, Belsey offers a personal prescription for a more open future critical practice, less constrained by conventional pieties and expectations. Widely illustrated with examples throughout the text, this lively and accessible account leads the way to a broad and inclusive cultural criticism.

Preface. 1 Pleasure: Have we neglected it? Fiction for pleasure. The case of tragedy. The English curriculum. Cries of joy. ‘Aesthetic’ pleasure. The Pleasure of the Text. Modernist unpleasure. Gaiety. 2 Piety: Haven’t we overdone it? Criticism on the defensive. Classic defences. The advent of theory. Law. The superego. Neurosis. Complacency. Culture and Anarchy. Artefacts and pleasure. Critical writing. 3 Biography: Friend or foe? Life and art. Biography in theory. What the authors say. New Historicism. Shakespeare’s life. Fact or fiction? Shakespeare’s memory. Romance. The death of the reader. 4 Realism: Do we overrate it? A disputed value. The default genre. Imitation. Insight. Totalization. Suspicion. Objections. The radical view. Recuperation. A counter–example. 5 Culture: What do we mean by it? Cultural criticism. Twin perils. Culture as meanings. Meanwhile, in Paris … Anthropology. Another culture. Perils circumvented. Work to do. 6 History: Do we do it justice? Offi cial usage. Cultural difference. History and criticism. Customary knowledge. Dissonance. An example. The old historicism. Criticism as cultural history. The uses of criticism. Critical skills. 7 Desire: A force to reckon with. Pleasure revisited. Orpheus. Loss. The desire of the protagonist. Stand–ins. The desire of the reader. The desire of the text. Substitution. Pacification. Defiance. Breaking the rules. And so … Criticism. Notes. Index.

Catherine Belsey is a research professor in English at Swansea University, UK. Her principal publications include Shakespeare in Theory and Practice (2008), Why Shakespeare? (2007), Critical Practice (1980, 2002), Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction (2002) and Desire: Love Stories in Western Culture (1994).

"Laudably eschewing jargon, she draws up a very readable manifesto for change in critical practice which would require critics to be more reflective about the pleasure of reading fiction and attending plays . . . nevertheless, the front she has chosen on which to examine a new direction for literary and/or cultural criticism is timely and compelling, and her argument made with verve and originality." (Suite101.com, 4 April 2011) " A Future for Criticism issues a challenge to critics that really amounts to having the courage of our convictions and sticking to what we′re good at, resisting the encroachments of history and psychology, and having ′confidence in the independent capabilities of criticism′ (76) ... Belsey′s book is a positive pleasure to read." (Transnational Literature, November 2011)