Why are some critical texts more compelling memorable or engaging thanothers? Can criticism be judged as a discourse of description explanation andanalysis alon... » 

Why are some critical texts more compelling memorable or engaging thanothers? Can criticism be judged as a discourse of description explanation andanalysis alone or do our evaluations reflect other kinds of investments in it?In this book Geoffrey Galt Harpham argues that the most powerful and effectivecriticism demands to be read as an expression of a distinctive sensibility away of being in the world it demands in other words to be read as adiscourse of character.Through a series of detailed and intimate intellectual portraits of leadingcriticsElaine Scarry Martha Nussbaum Slavoj Zizek and Edward SaidHarphamunfolds the complex and indirect ways in which human character is expressed incriticism. A final chapter on Criticism in a State of Terror assesses thecontemporary situation. The Character of Criticism represents not just asnapshot of contemporary criticism but a fresh approach to criticism itselfthat clarifies the stakes involved for writers and readers of criticism alike.It does so not by making difficult thinking easy but by making it strangermore idiosyncratic exotic and singular. «