Synopses & Reviews
Considering the treatment meted out to the great classics of American literature by Hawthorne, Melville, Mark Twain, and Henry James Shaw shows convincingly how they have been systematically raided by academic critics in the service of political correctness, and virtually robbed of their deepest meaning. This book demonstrates that it is possible to read literature and be highly conscious of the political, without descending into the merely ideological. Dinesh D'Souza
Review
"This book provides a lucid and comprehensive survey of the current state of the criticism of American literature. Shaw reviews the way in which five masterpieces of American fiction have been received over the years by critics: Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Melville's Moby-Dick and Billy Budd, Twain's Huckleberry Finn, and James's The Bostonians, As Shaw argues, over the past few decades critics have turned from treating these works in aeshetic terms to using them to pursue their own ideological agendas. In the process, they have reduced complex artistic and philosophical issues to the level of political sloganeering and thereby radically impoverished our view of our cultural heritage as a nation. Some will no doubt charge that Shaw is unfair in his account of contemporary critics. He does tend to exagerrate their vices, as well as the virtues of their predecessors. Still, on balance, he is correct in the account he gives of the descent of American literary criticism into the stranglehold of political correctness. Anyone wishing to get a sense of what is going on in the world of literary criticism today would do well to pick up this book." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-196) and index.