Literary Studies Deconstructed

Catherine Butler is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University, where she publishes primarily on children’s literature. As well as writing and editing academic books, she has authored six novels for children and teenagers, and is editor of the journal, Children’s Literature in Education.

“Reading this book as a PhD student, I found Butler’s argument valuable and frightening – more food for the paranoia that seems to be my (our?) bread and butter. … On the bright side, it made me think proactively about co-writing and multi-disciplinary collaboration as challenges to the ingrained privileging of hierarchised, sole-author citations.” (Gabriel Duckels, International Research in Children's Literature, Vol. 13 (1), 2020)“This is a timely, pertinent book, given how the changes brought about in academic literary studies over the past 25 years have caused the discipline to question its nature and purpose. … Her enterprise is commendable and the book is a worthwhile contribution to the debate on literary studies.” (Richard Bradford, timeshighereducation.com, October, 2018)

• 1. Introduction: The LITMUS Papers.- 2. Not I? Critics versus Readers.- 3. The Uses of Embarrassment: Exploring the Limits of Critical Reading.- 4. Attack of the Zombie Authors: Critics versus Writers.- 5. All Our Own Work: Originality and Creative Writing.- 6. Inconclusion.