Susan Sontag was against interpretation. Laura Kipnis was against love. Seven were against Thebes. Mark Greif is against everything. That’s the title of his new book, the subtitle of which is “Essays.

Of the character sketches that the English satirist Samuel Butler wrote in the mid-seventeenth century—among them “A Degenerate Noble,” “A Huffing Courtier,” “A Small Poet,” and “A Romance Writer”—the ...

How we give our feedback influences how it is heard. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you’re familiar with the idea of a “howler.” In the wizarding world, irate parents can send a magical letter that ...

Criticism can be hard to take; it’s little surprise that being afraid of it in the workplace is extremely common. But it’s important to understand criticism is not the same as feedback. While both ...

When unethical behavior is criticized, demands are often met with defensiveness and denial. How can we overcome this reaction? New research demonstrates that criticism is more persuasive when it is ...

John Guillory’s “Cultural Capital,” published amid the 1990s canon wars, became a classic. In a follow-up, “Professing Criticism,” he takes on his field’s deep funk. By Jennifer Schuessler Thirty ...

Criticism is part and parcel of living in the world. Posting on social media, performing your stand-up comedy, or even coaching your kid’s soccer team will all invite judgment and criticism. And doing ...

If Oscars are the pinnacle of Tinsletown praise, negative reviews by film critics surely are the depths. Worse yet, the sting of criticism has a proven staying power, giving new meaning to the song ...

Literary criticism once had an outsize reach, influencing the terms and concepts of disciplines like art and legal studies. With it came an outsize ego. During the 1970s and 80s, the heyday of ...