This Thing We Call Literature

This Thing We Call Literature collects 10 essays from the combative, cantakerous cultural critic Arthur Krystal. The
essays in this compact volume, mostly from The New Yorker, Harper's, andThe Chronicle of Higher
Education, all share Krystal's conviction that literature and the humanities, more broadly, are going down the
tubes. He laments the loss of the golden age of belle-lettrist scholarship with elegaical tributes to the likes of Erich
Auerbach, Lionel Trilling, and Harold Bloom; he bemoans the declining popularity of literary fiction at the
expense of genre fiction and graphic novels; and he casts a skeptical eye on the increaingly popular paradigm of
cognitive literary studies. Other essays consider the weakening role of the critic in society, the current value of
the humanities, and the overbearing nature of political correctness on contemporary culture.

Arthur Krystal has written for The New Yorker, Harper's,American Scholar, the Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times Book Review, and other publications. He is the author ofThe Half-Life of an American Essayist, Agitations: Essays on Life and Literature, andExcept When I Write: Reflections of a Recovering Critic. He lives in New York City.