Uses of literature
by Rita Felski · first published 2008
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2016–2023first – last mentioned
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"The diverse motives and mysteries of why we read are explored in this groundbreaking new work by Rita Felski. Challenging many time-worn homilies and theories put forth in contemporary literary criticism, "Uses of Literature" offers refreshing new insights into the purpose and value of reading literature." "Proposing that the interaction between reader and literature involves four "modes of textual engagement"--Recognition, enchantment, knowledge, and shock - the author bridges the gap between literary theory and common-sense beliefs about literature."--Jacket.
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In The Bestseller Code, Archer and Jockers touch on this to explain why literary criticism is out of touch with popular reading. They mention Uses of Literature by Rita Felski as as a "manifesto" of sorts about how criticism could take it more seriously. I haven't completed it, but the sample from Amazon looks promising.
on “Full-body reading” ↗…enacts a tension by both constructing and subtly undermining the imperial patriarchy through its descriptions of landscape. What does this have to do with how most humans read? Rita Felski, whose book “Uses of Literature” is studied in Adams’s A.S.U. class, has argued that the professional practice of scholarship has become self-defeatingly disdainful of moving literary encounters. “In retrospect, much of the grand theory…
on “The End of the English Major” ↗