How to be an intellectual : essays on criticism, culture, and the university / Jeffrey J. Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Jeffrey, 1958- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Criticism--United States.

Criticism.

Intellectuals--United States.

Intellectuals.

Literature--Study and teaching (Higher)--United States.

Literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 216 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Over the past decade, Jeffrey J. Williams has been one of the most perceptive observers of contemporary literary and cultural studies. He has also been a shrewd analyst of the state of American higher education. How to Be an Intellectual brings together noted and new essays and exemplifies Williams’s effort to bring criticism to a wider public How to Be an Intellectual profiles a number of critics, drawing on a unique series of interviews that give an inside look at their work and careers. The book often looks at critical thought from surprising angles, examining, for instance, the history of modern American criticism in terms of its keywords as they morphed from sound to rigorous to smart. It also puts in plain language the political travesty of higher education policies that produce student debt, which, as Williams demonstrates, all too readily follow the model of colonial indenture, not just as a metaphor but in actual point of fact. How to Be an Intellectual tells a story of intellectual life since the culture wars. Shedding academic obscurity and calling for a better critical writing, it reflects on what makes the critic and intellectual—the accidents of careers, the trends in thought, the institutions that shape us, and politics. It also includes personal views of living and working with books.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction Introduction

1. How to Be an Intellectual: Rorty v. Ross

2. The Retrospective Tenor of Recent Theory

3. The Rise of the Theory Journal

4. How Critics Became Smart

5. Publicist Intellectuals

6. The Ubiquity of Culture

7. Credibility and Criticism: On Walter Benn Michaels

8. The Statistical Turn in Literary Criticism

9. Prodigal Critics: Bloom, Fish, and Greenblatt

10. A Life in Criticism: M. H. Abrams

11. Bellwether: J. Hillis Miller

12. The Political Theory License: Michael Walzer

13. The Critic as Wanderer: Terry Eagleton

14. From Cyborgs to Animals: Donna Haraway

15. Intellectuals and Politics: Stefan Collini

16. The Editor as Broker: Gordon Hutner

17. Gaga Feminism: Judith “Jack” Halberstam

18. Book Angst

19. The Pedagogy of Debt

20. Student Debt and the Spirit of Indenture

21. The Academic Devolution

22. The Neoliberal Bias of Higher Education

23. The University on Film

24. The Thrill Is Gone

25. Unlucky Jim

26. Academic Opportunities Unlimited

27. The Pedagogy of Prison

28. Shelf Life

29. Teacher: Remembering Michael Sprinker

30. My Life as Editor

31. Other People’s Words

32. Long Island Intellectual

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8232-6381-9

0-8232-6643-5

0-8232-6383-5

0-8232-6384-3

OCLC:

890507515