Talk:anticriticism
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The noun: given as "criticism of anticritical actions" (which I don't really understand). Note the associated translation table is, however, for "opposition to criticism", which seems inconsistent. This word in Google Books finds nebulous Marxist theory etc. which is also incomprehensible to me. Equinox ◑ 13:47, 27 August 2020 (UTC)–
- I see uses of the term in the spelling anti-criticism. While I too find the uses – more modernist or socially constructivist than Marxist – somewhat nebulous, a common sense of the uses seems to be: opposition to criticism – which is precisely what you expect from anti- + criticism. The fuzziness largely derives from the spectrum of senses of the term criticism. In an article with the title “In Criticism Of Anti-Criticism; A warning about those who would abolish critics in order to uphold the status quo” by Grace and Fred M. Hechinger (The New York Times, March 11, 1962), the authors start off by writing: “THERE is a growing feeling in this country that criticism is not nice—perhaps even slightly un American. Criticism of critics is increasing.” The remainder is ransomware: for a mere $60 one can buy a reprint.
- There is a journal article “What Is Anti-Criticism?“ by the poet Karl Shapiro that appeared in Poetry Vol. 75, No. 6 (March 1950), pp. 339-351. It is the text of a lecture delivered twice in late 1949. One should expect the text to offer a definition early on, but the article begins with a lengthy and detailed defence of (literary) criticism, which apparently is under attack. The author positions “the argument against criticism” as a symptom of “a wider and more dangerous anti-intellectualism” before even laying out what that argument is. Apparently he holds the view that the best defence is to attack, like a cornered dog. In the very last paragraph the author writes, “In this lecture I have used the term anti-criticism as a synonym for anti-modernism.”
- Then there is “Notes toward a History of Anti-Criticism” by William E. Cain in New Literary History Vol. 20, No. 1 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 33-48. It explains that anti-criticism is criticism that isn’t (or any doubt expressed by a literary critic about the current practice of literary criticism, “something that manifestly is criticism because it isn’t criticism”, with affinities to deconstructionism). Unfortunately not the epitome of clarity and impossible to distill a definition from.
- The adjective sense is IMO an attributive use of one possible instantiation of the noun sense. --Lambiam 22:04, 2 September 2020 (UTC)
- It might also be a form of criticism that opposes the conventional forms, à la antinovel. Equinox ◑ 06:05, 3 September 2020 (UTC)
- I agree with Lambiam that the adjective looks like attributive use of a noun (compare e.g. "nondiscrimination clauses", again a noun, as contrasted with a true adjective as in "non-discriminatory clauses".) Several of the definitions above (e.g. "I have used the term anti-criticism as a synonym for anti-modernism") are ... unintuitive. - -sche (discuss) 10:13, 3 September 2020 (UTC)
RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 20:53, 7 October 2020 (UTC)