20th century literary criticism

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“We are often told that most of the scientists in the history of the world are living at this moment; very nearly the same ratio probably obtains in the field of criticism. This seems to be partly the consequence of the spectacular expansion of university education in this century, which has made academe the natural habitat of the literary intellectual; and party a more mysterious manifestation of the Zeitgeist, implying some widespread distrust or disablement of the fictive imagination, and a corresponding tendency to fall back upon the creative monuments of the past, suitably reinterpreted to fit our needs and preoccupations. Such an emphasis on criticism can certainly be invoked easily enough as evidence of cultural decadence, but whether it is welcomed or deplored, it is a fact that must be faced by students and teachers of literature.”