So, once again we are told that literary criticism is ready to kick the bucket. But wait, Jonathan Gottschall has a cure!

Literary studies should become more like the sciences. Literature professors should apply science’s research methods, its theories, its statistical tools, and its insistence on hypothesis and proof. Instead of philosophical despair about the possibility of knowledge, they should embrace science’s spirit of intellectual optimism. If they do, literary studies can be transformed into a discipline in which real understanding of literature and the human experience builds up along with all of the words.

The quick way forward is two steps back. Gottschall’s use of the scientific method has revealed such earth-shattering new evidence as the presence of the author and the pressure on the artist to “make it new.” What is really being said in the above piece is that poststructuralism and other forms of literary theory had made the critical enterprise too unstable and let’s use science to get back to the familiar, conservative truths. (I fed the data into a machine and got the result which I’ve typed out in the previous sentence.)

Also check out this from the Nation

Staged reading of a new play, Sangeet, by Ranbir Sidhu

Sunday, May 18, 5-7 pm
Engelman Recital Hall, Baruch College, NYC
25th street between Lexington and Third (closer to Lex, on the south side of the street)

It’s London in the early 80s and Hrpreet Arora and Vicki Peckham wanna get married. The only problem: it’s London in the early 80s. What were they thinking?

Very dark, very funny, very uncomfortable. A grim comedy without manners.

Developed with the generous support of MCC Theater, the Edward Albee Foundation and the Lower Manhattan cultural council.

Wine and cheese reception to follow.