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Both/And: Critique and Discovery in the Humanities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Susan Stanford Friedman
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Extract

What are the “limits of critique” in the age of trump? At a time when nationalist and proto-fascist movements are on the rise in many parts of the world? When hate-filled words and actions against the foreign, the racial or religious other, the gendered, and the differently abled are empowered to come out of the shadows and into the public realm, poisoning the atmosphere, spreading fear and despair? When corruption and greed threaten not only the foundations of democracy but also the planet on which we depend? Don't we need critique more than ever—critique of lies, of discourses and their histories, of policies and the power structures they reflect? The answer is both yes and no. Or rather, we do need critique, but we also need so much more than critique. Critique as an end in itself is not enough.

Type
Theories and Methodologies
Information
PMLA , Volume 132 , Issue 2 , March 2017 , pp. 344 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2017

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