The Death of Literature  

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The Death of Literature is a 1990 book by American literary critic and professor Alvin Kernan. In the book, Kernan considers the circumstances and causes of what be describes as the death of the "old literature" of romanticism and modernism. Among the causes he considers are recent theoretical approaches such as deconstruction, the politicization of criticism, and the rise of television culture.

Frank McConnell in The Wilson Quarterly found that Kernan's book compared favorably to two other best-selling books by humanities professors both published a few years before The Death of Literature, Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind (1987) and E. D. Hirsch's Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (1987). "Kernan is more original than Bloom or Hirsch. He blames the fall of culture on the poets and critics who should be its guardians. If we are collapsing into a new barbarism, Kernan says it is in no small measure due to the asocial artist whose every utterance, however outrageous, can be justified just because he calls himself that, an artist. And the part of the literary tradition that the "artist" leaves unharmed, the critic finishes off."

Robert Hauptman, reviewing The Death of Literature in World Literature Today, concluded that "The Death of Literature is a useful, often insightful commentary on current thought on criticism, literature, and society. It will stimulate the intellect of anyone who has the self-discipline to turn off the television or computer."

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