Just Being Difficult? by Jonathan Culler

Just Being Difficult? by Jonathan Culler

Is academic writing, particularly in the disciplines of literary theory and cultural studies, needlessly obscure? The claim has been widely circulated in the media and subject to passionate debate, but it has not been the subject of serious discussion. Just Being Difficult? provides learned and thoughtful analyses of the claim, of those it targets, and of the entire question of how critical writing relates to its intended publics and to audiences beyond them.

In this book, a range of distinguished scholars, including some who have been charged with willful obscurity, argue for the interest and importance of some of the procedures that critics have preferred to charge with obscurity rather than confront in another way. The debate on difficult writing hovers on the edges of all academic writing that seeks to play a role in the public arena. This collection is a much-needed contribution to the discussion.

"This collection is a remarkable and rational contribution to a passionate contemporary debateIs academic writing unjustifiably obscure? The claim has been widely made in media ranging from the Wall Street Journal to The New Republic and Philosophy and Literature. Just Being Difficult? offers a thoughtful, generally unpolemical, stimulating, and learned series of analyses of the claim, of those its targets, and of the entire question of how critical writing relates to its intended public and the audiences beyond it." -Richard Terdiman,University of California, Santa Cruz

Jonathan Culler is Senior Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. Kevin Lamb is a graduate student in the English Department at Cornell University.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780804747097
ISBN 10	0804747091
Title	Just Being Difficult?
Author	Jonathan Culler
Series	Cultural Memory In The Present
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Stanford University Press
Year published	2003-06-25
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.