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Article: Lionel Trilling and the fate of cultural criticism.
- Article from:
- The New Leader
- Article date:
- April 7, 1986
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1986 American Labor Conference on International Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Lionel Trilling and the Fate of Cultural Criticism
By Mark Krupnick Northwestern. 207 pp. $21.95.
Reviewed by Robert Gorham Davis Professor emeritus of English, Columbia University
THIS YEAR I was a member of a faculty seminar at Harvard that concentrated on the present state--or malaise--of advanced literary teaching in American universities. Taking part were not only local specialists in American studies but distinguished visitors from China, India and Germany. What emerged was the sense that on its highest competitive levels the American university approach to literature is theory-ridden, anarchic, isolated from our culture, and ...