Slow and Brilliant: Reactions to Geoffrey Galt Harpham's Diagnosis of the Humanities Today

A mainly affirmative--but complexifying--reaction to Harpham's diagnosis of the present-day humanities. Implicitly questioning the value and viability of the concept "method / methodology" for the Humanities and Arts today and in general, the essay discusses [and partly challenges] the "methodological" status of humanistic key concepts and core practices such as "interpretation," "reading," "text," and "otherness" in Harpham's conception; it takes issue with some normative implications in what Harpham believes should be the value of being "human" and, depending on it, the specific professional competence of the Humanist; above all, this reponse argues for an elitist self-understanding of the Humanities and Arts as a practice of swift intellectual slowness and of risk-taking.