The Pure Good of Theory (The Bucknell Lectures in Literary Theory) - Softcover

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Denis Donoghue was born and educated in Ireland. He worked as an Administrative Officer in the Irish Civil Service before entering the academic profession. Currently, he holds the position of Henry James Chair of English and American Letters at New York University. He has taught and lectured widely in Ireland, England and the USA. He gave the BBC Reith Lectures under the title The Arts without Mystery and has written many articles in the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, and The London Review of Books. His numerous publications include Warrenpoint (1990), Ferocious Alphabets (1981), The Sovereign Ghost (1976), William Butler Yeats (1971), The Ordinary Universe (1968), and Connoisseurs of Chaos (1961).

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In the sixth volume of the Bucknell Lectures in Literary Theory, the Irish critic Denis Donoghue offers an eloquent and passionate defense of poetry. Donoghue opposes the politicization of literature and the unnecessary "techniques of trouble" applied in certain forms of contemporary literary theory. With reference to particular proponents of theory, Donoghue argues that we do justice to the concept of theoretical discourse only if we pursue our inquiries into the value of literature in a more experimental and hospitable manner.

Literature, Donoghue insists, is not an annotation to the world but a concentration of energy turned toward a possible future, giving thought a form and declaring it possible. The aesthetic form thus constitutes what Donoghue calls a "better life" upon which the imagination embarks in its search for the omnipotence of thought.

This book includes an interview with Denis Donoghue and a bibliography of his critical works.