Candor and Perversion : Literature, Education and the Arts

Roger Shattuck reaffirms literature as a central field of study and personal reward.

With incisive analysis, he explores the nature of intellectual craftsmanship, defends art's moral anti-intellectualism and philistine pretension.

He argues that, in recent years, American literary studies have embarked on a wayward course, and he shows how politics and theory have grown increasingly dominant.

Looking to the past for guidance, Shattuck offers a powerful vision of a common literary and philosophical heritage.

Whether commenting on Flaubert, Foucault, "Pulp Fiction", Georgia O'Keeffe or V.S.

Naipaul, he presents a stirring, humane synthesis of the principles and values by which we can live at peace with diversity.