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natlib91's review against another edition
3.0
a useful account in the sense that it goes from a to b in a clearer way than i've seen elsewhere and draws some important distinctions between ia richards and the new critics. i enjoyed his hammering the new historicists and i think his reading of radical academia, the activist tone that bleeds into much criticism written by people who want to believe that their interpretations can form some small part, however small, of the road to the socialisation of the means of production is dead on. unfortunately north is not totally not of their set and believes there is a materialist criticism to be recovered from richards' practical criticism, through which we can meaningfully intervene in social life. i think mulhern is right in that this would require a re-founding of the discipline, probably outside of the contemporary university, and i think this would have been a much better book if north tried to insist on an absolute distinction between activism and criticism; trotsky writing 'i'm going to do the revolution now' after he'd finished his work of literary criticism is a suggestive example
ilchinealach's review against another edition
3.0
a useful account in the sense that it goes from a to b in a clearer way than i've seen elsewhere and draws some important distinctions between ia richards and the new critics. i enjoyed his hammering the new historicists and i think his reading of radical academia, the activist tone that bleeds into much criticism written by people who want to believe that their interpretations can form some small part, however small, of the road to the socialisation of the means of production is dead on. unfortunately north is not totally not of their set and believes there is a materialist criticism to be recovered from richards' practical criticism, through which we can meaningfully intervene in social life. i think mulhern is right in that this would require a re-founding of the discipline, probably outside of the contemporary university, and i think this would have been a much better book if north tried to insist on an absolute distinction between activism and criticism; trotsky writing 'i'm going to do the revolution now' after he'd finished his work of literary criticism is a suggestive example
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