The Function of Criticism at the Present Time - A call for transformative humanities
“The Function of Criticism at the Present Time” was the title of a programmatic essay by influential Victorian intellectual Matthew Arnold, published in 1865. In view of multiple changes of modernity, but also in response to the entry of the sciences into the educational system, Arnold upheld what he took to be the central importance of the humanist critic for society. Arnold was a conservative, and the role he imagined for the critic, too, was ultimately conservative. Still, both the questions he was facing and, with some qualifications, the answers he has found are worth revisiting at our current moment, in which it has become a pressing issue to highlight the central role of the humanities for a society in search of a sustainable future.
Zur Person: Irmtraud Huber ist seit 1. April 2023 Professorin für Englische Literatur und Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft an der Universität Konstanz. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen auf der Viktorianischen und zeitgenössischen Literatur. Derzeit beschäftigen sie vor allem Fragen der literarischen Form und der Formen des literaturwissenschaftlichen Arbeitens.
Veranstaltet von der geisteswissenschaftlichen Sektion (Fachbereich LKM)
Prof. Dr. Irmtaud Huber
Datum: 24.06.2024