Abstract:

In the era of “after theory”, it is always a heated scholarly issue to debate over the future of Western literary studies. Recently, Rita Felski and Joseph North respectively advance their arguments as to how literary studies as a discipline can overcome its methodological and disciplinary impasse. After a scrutiny of the inherent flaws of contemporary criticism, Felski suggests that we choose to practice “post-critique” so as to avoid the restraints of the “hermeneutics of suspicion”. She is much in favor of Latour’s “Actor Network Theory”, which in her view is a significant new tool to reorganize literary criticism. North’s study starts with a new periodization of literary theory, followed by a poignant critique of the so-called “scholarly turn” in literary criticism dominated by neo-liberalism. He concludes with a prediction about the possible paradigm shift of criticism, after reviewing all sorts of new trends in the twenty-first century literary studies. The two scholars, in spite of their obviously incongruent positions, offer some insightful observations regarding the future of Western literary studies, and in doing so they might unwittingly hold an interesting dialogue.

Key words: critique, post-critique, literary studies