Literature against itself - Literary Ideas in Modern Society

Sep 19, 2026

Uploaded by Ezra

Literature against itself presents an argument about how people talk about literature and how those ways of speaking originate, change, and often misfire within the humanities. The book connects literary thinking to social contexts, showing how conceptions of literature and humanistic study both reflect and shape ideas of humanness and public life. It also examines contradictions in the “paradigms” that guide humanistic thinking, including how literary culture and general society interact.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages135

Reading Time3 h 28 min

AccessFree to download

Culture, Criticism, and Unreality

The Myth of the Postmodern Breakthrough

The Politics of Anti-Realism

English in America

What Was New Criticism?

How Not to Talk about Fictions

How Not to Save the Humanities

Babbitt at the Abyss

Gerald Graff LITE􀀓TURE 􀀔GAINST ITSELF Literary Ideas in Modern Society The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London GERALD GRAFF is professor of English and chairman of the English Department at Northwestern University. He is the author of Poetic Statement and Critical Dogma. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd. , London © 1979 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1979 Printed in the United States of America 83 82 81 80 79 54 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Graff, Gerald. Literature against itself. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Literature and society. I. Title. PN51 . G68 801'.95 78-9879 ISBN 0-226-30600-3 To my mother Contents Acknowledgments ix Culture , Criticism, and Unreality 1 2 The Myth of the Postmodern Breakthrough 31 3 The Politics of Anti-Realism 63 4 English in America 103 5 What Was New Criticism? 129 6 How Not to Talk about Fictions 151 7 How Not to Save the Humanities 181 8 Babbitt at the Abyss 207 Notes 241 Index 257 Acknowledgments The writer of an argumentative book is more than usually dependent on the friends and colleagues to whom he can turn for judgments of his work. If he is lucky, his associates will be astute enough to curb his more erratic hunches and give him confidence in the good ones which lack of faith might otherwise have caused to go unpursued. I feel lucky to have had such associates , though they cannot be blamed for the erratic hunches that remain in the book or for my failure to make more of the better ones. The following people read portions of my manuscript and made many useful criticisms and suggestions: Tom Costello, Wallace Douglas , Joseph Epstein , Mark Krupnick , Christopher Lasch , Frank Lentricchia, Margaret Rapp, and Pat Story. Charles Newman read the whole of an early draft and gave me encouragement when I needed it most. Wayne Booth read the whole manuscript and contributed moral support and shrewd criticism. I owe a special debt to my student Anton van der Hoven, who not only gave indispensable aid in preparing the manuscript for the press but also went over my final version with great care and was responsible for many improvements. I am grateful to the Newberry Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities for a six-month grant that enabled me to bring this project near completion. Finally, for permission to reprint material in which parts of this book first appeared , I want to thank the editors of the following journals: TriQuarterly, American Scholar, Social Research, Salmagundi. The impious maintain that nonsense is normal in the Library and that the reasonable (and even humble and pure coherence) isan almost miraculous exception. Jorge Luis Borges I think this is the great sin ofthe intellectual: that he never really tests his ideas by what it would mean to him if he were to undergo the experience that he is recommending. Lionel Trilling One Culture, Criticism and Unreality This is a book about our ways of talking about literature-how they got started, why they have taken the turn they have taken recently, where they go wrong, what we can do about setting them right. More broadly it is about certain contradictions in the languages of the humanities-the terms (or "paradigms") in which we do our thinking in and about humanistic activities. It is also a book about the social context of literature and criticism how both literature and our ways of talking about it have been conditioned by social pressures and how they have in turn influenced social life. Conceptions of literature and the humanities both reflect and shape our conceptions of humanness and our views of man in society. Most theories of the nature of literature are more or less concealed theories of the nature of man and of the good society. In this sense, literary thinking is inseparable from moral and soci

FAQs

What is the central focus of the book?

The book analyzes the ways people talk about literature—how those ways began, why they changed, and where they go wrong—while also studying the social pressures that shape literature and criticism.

How does the author relate literary thinking to broader social thinking?

Literary thinking is treated as inseparable from moral and social thinking because most theories of literature conceal assumptions about human nature and the good society.

What problem does the book raise about current literary and critical authority?

The author emphasizes that artists and critics focus on the uncertain status of their own authority to make statements beyond the language and conventions in which they must write.

Sep 19, 2026

Uploaded by Ezra