Books by Eugene Goodheart

Aimed at literary scholars, intellectual historians, cultural studies specialists, and sociologists, this book attacks the neo-Darwinist approach to the arts and articulates a defense of humanist criticism. It shows that in moving beyond their area of competence, the neo-Darwinists commit an ideology, not a science.

Provides a critical analysis of the ideological character of Lawrence's novels and essays, in particular the effect of his utopianism on his views of nature, myth, and religious experience, while responding to his aesthetic achievement. In the introduction to the book, the author reflects upon the vicissitudes of Lawrence's reputation.

Complaints about the decline of critical standards in literature and culture in general have been voiced for much of the twentieth century

An important debate in modern literary criticism concerns the exact relationship between the ancient epic and the novel

The dominant view of D.H. Lawrence's work has long been that of F. R

What it means to be a Jew lies at the very heart of this book, a provocative memoir and a thoughtful speculation on the nature of Jewish identity and experience in an increasingly secular world.

What it means to be a Jew lies at the very heart of Confessions of a Secular Jew, a provocative memoir and a thoughtful speculation on the nature of Jewish identity and experience in an increasingly secular world. In the introduction to the new Transaction edition of his memoir, Goodheart addresses the themes of social justice, Zionism, chosenness, messianism, and alienation from a secular Jewish perspective. The story takes the reader from Goodhearts coming of age in Brooklyn to his higher education at Columbia College in the early fifties and beyond to his varied career as university teacher and literary critic.

The US Constitution resists centralizing authority by granting equal power to the three branches of government, as well as the individual states

In this new collection, Eugene Goodheart, scholar of English literature, essayist, and public intellectual, reveals himself in a way that will interest readers already familiar with his expansive body of work as well as those new to his writing

The author of this text argues that contemporary criticism is infused with the scepticism of modernist aesthetics. It has wilfully rejected the idea of moral authority. He focuses on contending spiritual views, particularly the Protestant-inspired humanist tradition and the decay of Catholicism.

Exposing the debilitating effects of much "ideology critique"--which seeks to reveal the effects of power, privilege, and interest underlying critical approaches to works of art--whether practiced by feminists, neo-Marxists, Foucauldians, new Historicists, or post-colonialists, Goodheart argues for a new kind of criticism that will reintroduce the pleasures of literature.

This collection of essays and reviews written between 1960 and 1985 are a deliberate response to the current, increasingly specialized forms of criticism.