Abstract As practiced, literary and culture criticism is always in some sense metacritical—that is, finding itself inevitably drawn to discussing its own conditions of possibility. Bruce Robbins's Criticism and Politics: A Polemical Introduction explores these conditions as they have changed since the 1960s, noting in particular the vexed relationship between criticism and politics, itself a much-debated topic within criticism. Robbins surveys the contemporary critical landscape, covering its recent history while also polemically engaging with various critics who wish to “de-politicize” the field. Robbins forcefully argues that criticism and politics are largely inseparable, and with his most recent book, Atrocity: A Literary History, he demonstrates the ways in which such politically engaged criticism operates.
Robert T. Tally (Fri,) studied this question.