At War with the Word
76. R. V. Young, At War with the Word: Literary Theory and Liberal Education
In this book, English professor R. V. Young examines the current state of literary criticism in academia. He principally talks about postmodernism and deconstructionism, explaining why (in his view) these theories are logically inconsistent and ultimately incorrect about the interpretation of literature. By contrast, Young argues that works of literature have intrinsic meaning and value, that this meaning can be conveyed from authors to readers, and that there are objective standards for evaluating what constitutes “great” literature.
This book will probably only be interesting to those who have studied literature in an academic environment and who are familiar with the people and terms to which Young refers. I was vaguely familiar with such names as Foucault and Derrida, but I had never heard of several other deconstructionists such as Paul de Man. Young quotes at length from these critics, and some of the passages went over my head. However, I thought Young’s argument was in general very persuasive, and I was especially interested to see how he related literary criticism to political theory and current events. He’s pretty direct about his own point of view and doesn’t mind arguing forcefully with the other side, so some people might find this book offensive. I personally enjoyed it, but a postmodernist probably wouldn’t be convinced by the argument.
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I was on LibraryThing earlier and discovered the most awesome feature ever: "Will I like it?" When you click on a book and its information comes up, you can scroll down the page and click on the "Will I like it?" button. It will give you an answer somewhere between "you won't like it" to "you'll love it" - and for the most part, it seems to be pretty accurate! I've gotten way too much amusement from it today....