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Can a Surface Reader Laugh?
- Journal of Modern Literature
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 35, Number 2, Winter 2012
- pp. 143-145
- 10.2979/jmodelite.35.2.143
- Review
- Additional Information
Radical Indecision charts three theorists’ strategies for dealing with the “indispensable inadequacy” of literary criticism. Discussing the writings of Roland Barthes, Maurice Blanchot and Jacques Derrida, Leslie Hill describes indecision not as the failing of a particular interpretive school or trend, but as an enabling condition of the entire critical endeavor. Instead of something to be denied, or even readily overcome, indecision in Hill’s view is integral to all criticism, justice and evaluation. Hill argues that although criticism is perpetually called upon to decide, it is propelled by the persistence of the irresolvable.