Literary criticism, at its best, is only a more sophisticated version of the impulse that excites us when we see a good movie or play or read a good book. We want to gather some people who have been similarly affected and talk about it. We have questions about odd points of the plot and hidden motivations of characters. We have ideas about how one bit of dialogue informs a later bit. We often have ideas about what the work “means.” Whatever it is we want to say, the fact is we generally want to say it, and we want conversation partners who will humor us by listening, and hopefully even engage us by arguing.
Like the post-performance pub banter, the scholarly conversation tends to move in waves. Someone says something persuasive, frames our thinking on an issue, and we may still be discussing this idea years or decades after. Perhaps then someone will return to an older idea and consider it in light shed by the turns in the discussion. This in turn may be the new frame for years to come.
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