Citizen Critics

Rosa A. Eberly

ISBN 10: 025206867X / ISBN 13: 9780252068676

Published by University of Illinois Press, US, 2000

About this Item

The condition of our public discussions about literary and cultural works has much to say about the state of our democracy. Classrooms, newspapers, magazines, Internet forums, and many other places grant citizens a place to hold public discourses-and claim a voice on national artistic matters. Rosa A. Eberly looks at four censorship controversies where professionals asserted their authority to deny citizen critics a voice-and effectively removed discussion of literature from the public sphere. Eberly compares the outrage sparked by the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer with the relative quiescence that greeted the much more violent and sexually explicit content of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho and Andrea Dworkin's Mercy. Through a close reading of letters to the editor, reviews, media coverage, and court cases, Eberly shows how literary critics and legal experts defused censorship debates-and undercut the authority of citizen critics-by shifting the focus from content to aesthetics and from social values to publicity.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780252068676

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Citizen Critics
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press, US
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 025206867X
• ISBN 13: 9780252068676
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 313 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The condition of our public discussions about literary and cultural works has much to say about the state of our democracy. Classrooms, newspapers, magazines, Internet forums, and many other places grant citizens a place to hold public discourses—and claim a voice on national artistic matters. 

Rosa A. Eberly looks at four censorship controversies where professionals asserted their authority to deny citizen critics a voice—and effectively removed discussion of literature from the public sphere. Eberly compares the outrage sparked by the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer with the relative quiescence that greeted the much more violent and sexually explicit content of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho and Andrea Dworkin's Mercy. Through a close reading of letters to the editor, reviews, media coverage, and court cases, Eberly shows how literary critics and legal experts defused censorship debates—and undercut the authority of citizen critics—by shifting the focus from content to aesthetics and from social values to publicity.

About the Author

Rosa A. Eberly is an associate professor of rhetoric at Penn State University. She is coeditor of A Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy and The Sage Handbook of Rhetoric.