Candor and perversion: literature, education, and the arts

Abstract

Roger Shattuck reaffirms literature as a central field of study and personal reward. With incisive analysis, he explores the nature of intellectual craftsmanship, defends art's moral anti-intellectualism and philistine pretension. He argues that, in recent years, American literary studies have embarked on a wayward course, and he shows how politics and theory have grown increasingly dominant. Looking to the past for guidance, Shattuck offers a powerful vision of a common literary and philosophical heritage. Whether commenting on Flaubert, Foucault, Pulp Fiction, Georgia O'Keeffe or V.S. Naipaul, he presents a stirring, humane synthesis of the principles and values by which we can live at peace with diversity.