TOPCRIT · The Other Post-Criticism: Experimental Critical Writing by Women and the Future of the Literary Humanities

The Other Post-Criticism: Experimental Critical Writing by Women and the Future of the Literary Humanities

TOPCRIT aims to produce a richer and more inclusive understanding of the concept of post-critique by studying the pioneering role of women in contemporary literary-critical culture. Working at the cutting edge of debate on the functions, forms and futures of criticism, the project used a combination of interdisciplinary scholarship and innovative technologies to document, investigate and disseminate experimental literary-critical writing by women, providing the first account to date of women’s contributions and challenges to the post-critical paradigm. To ensure maximum impact and visibility, project outputs were designed to influence state-of-the-art academic debate, public conversation, and future curricular models. A vibrant outreach strategy was developed to spark wider public interest in the ways in which experimental literary texts can perform key critical functions, and to strengthen women’s key role in contemporary critical conversation. The principal research objectives of TOPCRIT were 1) the documentation and analysis of women’s contribution to a decisive reorientation of the tasks and forms of contemporary literary criticism; and 2) the incorporation of this contribution in a broadened and diversified concept of post-critique. The project targeted an area of literary-critical production that, despite a growing lay readership, has received little scholarly attention: contemporary experimental writing that engages literary-critical methods, forms, and debates in non-standard written and performance-based formats, and whose engagement with literature enjoys a broader or non-standard emotional register. Bringing to the fore the pioneering role of women in this "other" post-critical paradigm is important in social terms as it works to redress a strong bias in popular imaginaries of "post-" concepts and the critical (and specifically "post-critical") avant garde toward high-profile male authors from the continental philosophical tradition. Complementing its award-winning publications, TOPCRIT's communication and outreach strategy included the flagship public program, Performing the Lecture, which was held in collaboration between the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Centre for Contemporary Culture, Barcelona, the Barcelona Biennial of Thought, and the Casa dels Clàssics. This program of lecture-performances and public conversations between scholars, artists and experimental authors aimed to challenge popular perceptions of the lecture form and to explore the idea of the lecture as performance. TOPCRIT has made a strong impact on contemporary conversation around post-critique through the Fellow's novel approach to experimental literary-critical writing by women, which the project has successfully documented and analysed.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union