Readings

Julian Wolfreys writes like an accessible Derrida. His achievement in Readings is a remarkable illumination of the often impenetrable relation of reading to questions of responsibility, guilt, political choice, democracy, resistance and performativity. There are few critics who combine complexity and exposition with such ease, or who can weave such an efficient summary of contemporary debates on the ethics of reading into such a subtle performance of their own as Wolfreys. -- Mark Currie, University of Westminster Somehow - I wish I knew how he did it - Julian Wolfreys manages to write on the most intricate and subtle topics with something approaching perfect lucidity. He is clear; he is funny; he is right. This gentle and brilliant exploration of what reading can mean and what it can do is conducted with the kind of assurance and ease one associates with Maria Callas, with Pele, with Groucho Marx: a great pro working with such lubricated grace it looks like play. I certainly have never learned so much from a book, nor had such a fine time doing it. -- James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California I think that Readings is a very welcome and even urgent book. A fine pedagogical sense allows Wolfreys to represent clearly and elegantly rather obscure or difficult texts building slowly a critical mosaic through a collage of exemplary readings. Julian Wolfreys is a sharp and astute literary critic who remains aware that literature cannot be reduced to context, history, or philosophy. -- Jean-Michel Rabate, Department of English, University of Pennsylvania This elegantly written essay starts from the premise that reading is never innocent and in a series of encounters with a variety of well-chosen texts on the subject of reading demonstrates that deconstructive criticism is still a force to be reckoned with. -- K.M. Newton, Professor of English, University of Dundee Through his explorations of such illuminating concepts as 'reading to excess', 'infectious reading', and the 'impossible responsibility' inherent in our various acts of textual consumption, Wolfreys challenges us to reconsider the conventional parameters and assumptions that mark so many of our reading practices. -- Professor Kenneth Womack, Pennsylvania State University Julian Wolfreys writes like an accessible Derrida. His achievement in Readings is a remarkable illumination of the often impenetrable relation of reading to questions of responsibility, guilt, political choice, democracy, resistance and performativity. There are few critics who combine complexity and exposition with such ease, or who can weave such an efficient summary of contemporary debates on the ethics of reading into such a subtle performance of their own as Wolfreys. Somehow - I wish I knew how he did it - Julian Wolfreys manages to write on the most intricate and subtle topics with something approaching perfect lucidity. He is clear; he is funny; he is right. This gentle and brilliant exploration of what reading can mean and what it can do is conducted with the kind of assurance and ease one associates with Maria Callas, with Pele, with Groucho Marx: a great pro working with such lubricated grace it looks like play. I certainly have never learned so much from a book, nor had such a fine time doing it. I think that Readings is a very welcome and even urgent book. A fine pedagogical sense allows Wolfreys to represent clearly and elegantly rather obscure or difficult texts building slowly a critical mosaic through a collage of exemplary readings. Julian Wolfreys is a sharp and astute literary critic who remains aware that literature cannot be reduced to context, history, or philosophy. This elegantly written essay starts from the premise that reading is never innocent and in a series of encounters with a variety of well-chosen texts on the subject of reading demonstrates that deconstructive criticism is still a force to be reckone

Julian Wolfreys is Professor of Modern Literature and Culture, with the Department of English and Drama, at Loughborough University. He has published extensively on nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature, and theoretical approaches to literature. His most recent books are Thomas Hardy and Literature, in Theory. He is currently working on The Derrida Wordbook (EUP) and a study of the relation between philosophy and poetry in the nineteenth century.