The Literary Studies Shelf

Doing Criticism: Across Literary and Screen Arts
James Chandler
Wiley-Blackwell
www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell
9781405177795, $59.95, PB, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Criticism-Across-Literary-Literature/dp/140517= 7799

Synopsis: With the publication of "Doing Criticism: Across Literary and Scr= een Arts", James Chandler presents a practical guide to engaging actively a=
nd productively with a critical object, whether a film, a novel, or a play.=
Going beyond the study of lyric poetry and literature to include motion pi= cture and dramatic arts, "Doing Criticism" offers a unique text that provid=
es specific advice on how to best write criticism while offering concrete i= llustrations of what it looks like on the page.

Divided into two parts, "Doing Criticism" first presents an up-to-date acco= unt of the state of criticism in both Anglo-American and Continental contex=
ts by describing both the longstanding mission and the changing functions o=
f criticism over the centuries and discussing critical issues that bridge t=
he literary and screen arts in the contemporary world.

The second part of "Doing Criticism" features a variety of case studies of = criticism across media, including works by canonical authors such as Jane A= usten, Charles Dickens, and W. B. Yeats; films such as Coppola's The Conver= sation and Hitchcock's Vertigo; screen adaptations of Mary Shelley's Franke= nstein and Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day; and a concluding chapter on s= everal of Spike Lee's film "joints" that brings several of the book's centr=
al concepts to bear on work of a single film auteur.

Helping students of literature and cinema write well about what they find i=
n their reading and viewing, "Doing Criticism": Discusses how the bridging =
of the literary arts and screen arts can help criticism flourish in the pre= sent day; Illustrates how the doing of criticism is in practice a particula=
r kind of writing; Considers how to generalize the consequences of criticis=
m beyond personal growth and gratification; Addresses the ways the practice=
of criticism matters to the practice of the critical object; Suggests that=
doing without criticism is not only unwise, but also perhaps impossible; F= eatures case studies organized under the rubrics of conversation, adaptatio=
n, genre, authorship and seriality

Critique: Comprised of six informative chapters (Doing Criticism/Doing with= out Criticism; Making of the Critical Essay; Conversations; Adaptations; Ge= nres; Authorship and Seriality) "Doing Criticism: Across Literary and Scree=
n Arts" is especially recommended as a curriculum textbook for students in = introductory courses in criticism, literary studies, and film studies, novi=
ce book/film/theatre reviewers. Highly recommended for personal, profession= al, community, and academic library Literary Criticism collections, it shou=
ld be noted for students, academic, professional reviewers, as well as gene= ral readers with interest in the subject, that "Doing Criticism: Across Lit= erary and Screen Arts" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, = $48.00).

Editorial Note: James Chandler (https://english.uchicago.edu/people/james-c= handler) is William K. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor in the Departm= ents of English and Cinema & Media Studies at the University of Chicago, US=
A. He has written widely about Romanticism, British and Irish literature si= nce the early Enlightenment, American cinema, and the relationship of liter= ary criticism to film criticism. He is the author of several books includin=
g England in 1819 and An Archaeology of Sympathy: The Sentimental Mode in L= iterature and Cinema.

Best Minds
Stevan M. Weine
Fordham University Press
www.fordhampress.com
9781531502669, $34.95, HC, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Minds-Ginsberg-Revolutionary-Madness/dp/1531502= 660

Synopsis: Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem "Howl" opens with one of the most reso= nant phrases in modern poetry: "I saw the best minds of my generation destr= oyed by madness." Thirty years later, Ginsberg entrusted a Columbia Univers= ity medical student with materials not shared with anyone else, including p= sychiatric records that documented how he and his mother, Naomi Ginsberg, s= truggled with mental illness.

With the publication of "Best Minds: How Allen Ginsberg Made Revolutionary = Poetry from Madness", psychiatrist, researcher, and scholar Stevan M. Weine=
, M.D., who was that medical student, examines how Allen Ginsberg took his = visions and psychiatric hospitalization, his mother's devastating illness, = confinement, and lobotomy, and the social upheavals of the postwar world an=
d imaginatively transformed them.

Though madness is often linked with hardship and suffering, Ginsberg's show=
ed how it could also lead to profound and redemptive aesthetic, spiritual, = and social changes. Through his revolutionary poetry and social advocacy, G= insberg dedicated himself to leading others toward new ways of being human = and easing pain.

Throughout his celebrated career Ginsberg made us feel as though we knew ev= erything there was to know about him. However, much has been left out about=
his experiences growing up with a mentally ill mother, his visions, and hi=
s psychiatric hospitalization.

In "Best Minds", with a forty-year career studying and addressing trauma, D=
r. Weine provides a groundbreaking exploration of the poet and his creative=
process especially in relation to madness.

"Best Minds" examines the complex relationships between mental illness, psy= chiatry, trauma, poetry, and prophecy -- using the access Ginsberg generous=
ly shared to offer new, lively, and indispensable insights into an American=
icon. Dr. Weine also provides new understandings of the paternalism, treat= ment failures, ethical lapses, and limitations of American psychiatry in th=
e 1940s and 1950s.

In light of these new discoveries, the challenges Ginsberg faced appear sta= rker and his achievements, both as a poet and an advocate, even more remark= able.

Critique: A masterpiece of original and seminal scholarship, "Best Minds: H=
ow Allen Ginsberg Made Revolutionary Poetry from Madness" is informatively = enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a two page listing of Acknowl= edgments, nineteen pages of Notes, and an eighteen page Index. An inherentl=
y fascinating study, "Best Minds" is especially commended to the attention =
of the legions of Allen Ginsberg fans and an important, unreservedly recomm= ended addition to both community and academic library 20th Century American=
Literary/Poetry Studies collections. It should be noted for personal readi=
ng lists that "Best Minds" is also available in a digital book format (Kind= le, $16.99).

Editorial Note #1: Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 - April 5, 1997) was an Ame= rican poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he=
began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the = core of the Beat Generation. He vigorously opposed militarism, economic mat= erialism, and sexual repression, and he embodied various aspects of this co= unterculture with his views on drugs, sex, multiculturalism, hostility to b= ureaucracy, and openness to Eastern religions. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wi= ki/Allen_Ginsberg)

Editorial Note #2: Dr. Stevan M. Weine (https://www.psych.uic.edu/profile/s= tevan-m-weine) is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at = Chicago College of Medicine, where he is also Director of Global Medicine a=
nd Director of the Center for Global Health. He is the author of two books:=
"When History Is a Nightmare: Lives and Memories of Ethnic Cleansing in Bo= snia-Herzegovina" and :Testimony and Catastrophe: Narrating the Traumas of = Political Violence".

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