Introduction: The Public Muse

Abstract

As we approach the end of the twentieth century, the air is filled with lamentation over the decline of public life. Civility has vanished, we complain; the streets are meaner than ever. Voter apathy and cynicism run rampant, while workers are subjected to continuous lay-offs and mergers. The spirit of community, we are told, has given way to cultural warfare or narcissistic self-absorption. As for public information and entertainment, what responsible editor or serious producer can possibly compete with the global media empire of Rupert Murdoch? Meanwhile, intellectuals have begun to regret their diminished status and influence outside the academy. A call for the return of the ‘public intellectual’ has been issued, and academicians like Stephen Carter and Martha Nussbaum have responded with general-interest books like The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion (1993) and Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life (1995), insisting that religion and literature can make a vital contribution to political and economic life. At the same time, thanks to the widespread perception of crisis in public life, academic research on the so-called ‘public sphere’ is growing.