Plural Texts: On Rereadings

Abstract

Abstract This review considers Columbia University Press’s ongoing Rereadings—an ambitious series of short books that aims to rethink both individual novels and the larger question of what constitutes “academic” criticism. Focusing on three of the four current entries in the series—Peter Coviello’s reread of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, Ivan Kreilkamp’s of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad, and Kate Zambreno’s of Hervé Guibert’s To the friend who did not save my life—many of the pressing questions that arise from these books, seen together, ultimately reflect the institutional conditions of their writing and reception.“The university press is and must continue to be a space for new thought and forms of inquiry, but what happens when the university itself cannot or will not sustain the thinkers who produce this work?”