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Public Access: Literary Theory and American Cultural Politics
Contributor(s): Berube, Michael (Author)
ISBN: 0860916782     ISBN-13: 9780860916789
Publisher: Verso
OUR PRICE:   $24.70  
Product Type: Paperback
Published: June 1994
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism
Dewey: 801.950
LCCN: 00000000
Lexile Measure: 1610
Series: Haymarket
Physical Information: 0.84" H x 6.06" W x 9.32" (1.06 lbs) 288 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
In the years of the Reagan-Bush era, the controversy over 'political correctness' erupted on American campuses, spreading to the mainstream media as right-wing pundits like Dinesh D'Souza and Roger Kimball prosecuted their publicity campaign against progressive academics. Michael B rub 's brilliant new book explains how and why the political correctness furore emerged, and how the right's apparent stranglehold on popular opinion about the academy can be loosened.

Traversing the terrain of contemporary cultural criticism, B rub examines the state of cultural studies, the significance of postmodernism, the continuing debate over multicultural curricula, and the recent revisions of literary history in American studies. Also included is B rub 's witty and self-deprecating autobiographical reflection on why interpretive theory has emerged as an indispensable part of education in the humanities over the past decade

Public Access insists that academics must exercise more responsibility towards the publics who underwrite but often misunderstand their work and its significance. Taken seriously as a potential audience, B rub argues, such publics can be weaned from their present inclination to believe the distortions and half-truths peddled by the right's ideologues. The goal of such 'public access' criticism is not just a better environment for teachers and scholars, but a world in which education itself achieves its proper place in a society committed to equality of opportunity and true critical thinking.