From Publishers Weekly
These candid, contentious interviews with nine prominent literary critics serve as a guide through the perplexing thickets of modern criticism. Northrop Frye discusses the Bible as a storehouse of myth and ponders why great writers like Ezra Pound and D. H. Lawrence were "ideological fat-heads." Harold Bloom claims that the literary world and academia are dominated by charlatans, fools and bureaucrats; he sees the true critic as an original voice rising above conformist babble. To deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, the modern critics' role is to gauge the relation of our culture to writing and speaking. Other deconstructors interviewed here are Barbara Johnson, Geoffrey Hartman and J. Hillis Miller. At the opposite pole stands Edward Said, who discusses his Palestinian roots and argues that criticism should take up wide social issues as he did in his book Orientalism. Salusinszky teaches at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The predominant theme of this series of interviews with nine of the most influential literary critics at work in academia today is the function of criticism in the university and society. Before each interview, Salusinszky presents a short and intelligent summary of the critic's career and interests. With only moderate success, he asks each critic to respond to a poem by Wallace Stevens in an attempt to show that each has a unique approach to literature. More happily, the critics read the interviews preceding theirs and respond in turn to important issues that have been raised. Consequently, the book is not just a series of interviews but a symposium. Derrida, Frye, Said, and Barbara Johnson are among the critics interviewed. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries. Donald P. Kaczvinsky, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, Pa.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
