Politics & The Paracademy (Criticism LTD, Episode #8)
An attempt to triangulate politicization, professionalization, and publication by examining several periods in the history of criticism.
Category: The American Vandal
The Chicago Fight (Criticism LTD, Episodes #6-7)
A deep dive into the Chicago Critics who inspired John Crowe Ransom’s 1937 essay, “Criticism Inc.”
The Racist Interpretation Complex (Criticism LTD, Episode #5)
What is the political economy of New Criticism? Are the racist and reactionary Cold War politics of the New Critics immanent to their trademark method: close reading?
Ponzi Austerity & The Monolingual University (Criticism LTD, Episode #4)
Last week, West Virginia University announced that it would abolish its World Languages, Literatures, & Linguistics Department, proposing to replace it with automated digital instruction. This is the apotheosis of trends going back decades. In this episode we talk about the effects of monolingual education.
Ponzi Austerity In The Age of Cultural Abundance (Criticism LTD, Episode #3)
How has the systemic defunding and deprofessionalizing of humanities academia impacted literary criticism? Why is there such a flourishing culture industry if demand for cultural education is supposedly declining?
Hungover From The Bad Old Days of High Theory (Criticism LTD, Episode #2)
What is criticism? Why should it matter? Can it be saved from the gun-toting businessman? A crossover episode with the High Theory podcast.
The Golden Age of The Working Critic (Criticism LTD, Episode #1)
The premiere of a new series, “Criticism LTD,” on the contemporary state of criticism.
Working Conditions with Christopher Newfield & Anna Kornbluh (50th Episode #MLA2023 Special)
On the eve of the largest annual gathering of literary studies scholars, a discussion of the presidential theme of this year’s convention with the MLA President who chose that theme.
The Twitter Elegies (& Mastodon Scolds) with Rebecca Colesworthy & Jeff Jarvis
In the finale episode of “Social Problems,” a (slightly more) optimistic look at the present and future of social media.
Reckless Monetization, Surveillance Kleptocracy, & Olivia Snow’s Villain Origin Story
As the Elon Musk era at Twitter descends ever further into chaos, we discuss the canaries in the coal mine of surveillance, shadowbanning, algorithmic censorship, and deplatforming: sex workers.