Why Trilling Matters

Adam Kirsch

Published by Yale University Press 2011

Why Trilling Matters

Adam Kirsch

In the series Why X Matters Series

https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300178289

Overview
Contents

About this book

Lionel Trilling, regarded at the time of his death in 1975 as America’s preeminent literary critic, is today often seen as a relic of a vanished era. His was an age when literary criticism and ideas seemed to matter profoundly in the intellectual life of the country. In this eloquent book, Adam Kirsch shows that Trilling, far from being obsolete, is essential to understanding our current crisis of literary confidence—and to overcoming it.

By reading Trilling primarily as a writer and thinker, Kirsch demonstrates how Trilling’s original and moving work continues to provide an inspiring example of a mind creating itself through its encounters with texts. Why Trilling Matters introduces all of Trilling’s major writings and situates him in the intellectual landscape of his century, from Communism in the 1930s to neoconservatism in the 1970s. But Kirsch goes deeper, addressing today’s concerns about the decline of literature, reading, and even the book itself, and finds that Trilling has more to teach us now than ever before. As Kirsch writes, “Trilling’s essays are not exactly literary criticism” but, like all literature, “ends in themselves.”

Author / Editor information

Adam Kirsch is a senior editor at the New Republic and a columnist for Tablet magazine. He is the author of several books of poetry and criticism, and most recently of a short biography of Benjamin Disraeli. He lives in N

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
One. Does Literature Matter? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Two. ‘‘A Professor And A Man And A Writer’’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
Three. Varieties Of Liberal Imagination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
Four. Isaac Babel And The Rabbis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Five. A Syllabus Of Terrors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Six. ‘‘Howl’’ And The Visionary Gleam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Seven. The Affirming Self Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Eight. The Reader As Hero Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171

Language: English
Publisher: Yale University Press
Pages
- Main content: 192

eBook

Published: October 25, 2011
ISBN: 9780300178289