The Empire of Criticism (Criticism LTD, Episodes #14-16)
The tripartite finale of “Criticism LTD.”
Category: Criticism LTD
The 16-episode 8th season of “The American Vandal Podcast” ran from August to November of 2023. It covered a wide range of questions about the contemporary state of literary criticism, the institutions which have historically be responsible for training critics and circulating their work, and new media associated with “The Golden Age of The Working Critic” (as the first episode of the series is titled). All episodes are available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the other podcast platforms.
EdTech, AI, & The Unbundling of Research & Teaching (Criticism LTD, Episode #13)
A sometimes uncanny Halloween week exploration of the EdTech griftopia.
Podcasting Criticism (Criticism LTD, Episode #12)
An appropriately rangy discussion of the podcast medium and its debts to existing print and audio forms.
Criticism In The Conglomerate Era (Criticism LTD, Episode #11)
As mass-market literature has been consolidated into a small handful of publishing conglomerates, the critical work once done by publicity and editorial departments has been offloaded.
BookTube, BookTok, Wattpad, & Audible Creation Exchange (Criticism LTD, Episode #10)
What is literary knowledge? And, for that matter, what is literature? A survey of new literary media.
Brittle Paper & The Blogossance (Criticism LTD, Episode #9)
What is the relationship between literary criticism and media studies? How has criticism adapted to the digital revolution?
Politics & The Paracademy (Criticism LTD, Episode #8)
An attempt to triangulate politicization, professionalization, and publication by examining several periods in the history of criticism.
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.