Reign of Ideology

Eugene Goodheart is Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities at Brandeis University and author of numerous books including Desire and Its Discontents (Columbia), The Skeptic Disposition, and Pieces of Resistance.

"Goodheart presents a span of writers from Matthew Arnold to contemporary critics. Disclaiming an intent to adjudicate quarrels as to the meaning of the term, he notes that resistance to ideological interpretation has its own perils." -- Choice "Goodheart presents a span of writers from Matthew Arnold to contemporary critics. Disclaiming an intent to adjudicate quarrels as to the meaning of the term, he notes that resistance to ideological interpretation has its own perils. No writer-whether critic or literary historian-can write about 'ideology' without assuming a precarious position. Writers are either for or against what they see in an author's work. Yet, there is the matter of a revisionist approach. So when Goodheart 'revisits' the work of Kenneth Burke, what is his concern? In the last analysis, this volume gives readers food for thought." -- Choice