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Comment RSSBy Matthew Dunham
As a purported scholar of literature (an English graduate student), I deal with “the literary” on a daily basis. I have enclosed that phrase in quotation marks because literature and “the literary” are demarcated from the rest of what we read, and I would like to call that into question. Is there truly a difference between what we …
Articles in: Criticism
Home » Archive » CriticismLiterature vs. Popular Fiction
April 19, 2010 # 9:52 am # Criticism, Literary # No CommentScrew you guys! I’m going home to read…
April 5, 2010 # 12:12 pm # Criticism, Literary # No CommentBy Josh Q. Newman
“Ah, books? God, I hate those!”
If you agree with this—and chances are because you’re a college student you might very well have said something similar sometime before you went to class—then I would suggest you stop reading this because I regret to inform you that it was said by none other than Eric Cartman in the March …
Meeting Atwood vs. Reading Atwood
March 24, 2010 # 12:09 pm # Criticism, Literary # No Comment
By Josh Q. Newman
When Margaret Atwood came to UB, the English department was ecstatic. I ran into a professor whose usual aplomb was cut short as he was heading toward the event for English majors. We were to meet the 70-year-old Canadian author in the special library collection at 420 Capen Hall for a one-to-one discussion about her life and …
Point Blank Omega
February 23, 2010 # 12:09 am # Criticism, Literary # No CommentBy Josh Q. Newman
Don DeLillo’s new book, “Point Omega,” is a concise exercise in theoretical reasoning, metaphysical axioms, and existential bivouacking. If you didn’t understand the first sentence, then you won’t understand “Point Omega.” And if you thought the sentence didn’t make sense, then you’re in good company. It didn’t.
Neither, at first glance, does DeLillo’s novella. While his prose is …
Everyone’s a Critic
February 9, 2010 # 12:09 am # Criticism, Literary # No CommentBy Josh Q. Newman
I usually don’t plan on getting into theoretical discussions with myself when I go to the movies, but when I saw “The Book of Eli”—a book, by all means, that should be closed—it got me thinking. Watching the movie was a painful experience (try not to wince when Denzel Washington eviscerates someone like he’s scooping a mango), …
