Kelo The Great

Inquiries into writers' intimate personal lives and into their social and intellectual backgrounds continue to be the focus of much classroom discussion, continue to be published both by academic and commercial publishers, continue to form the bulk of what is generally called "literary study"

In the beginning, we thought it was essential for us to learn the background of the author life in order to understand the literary work. Keesey, along with myself, disagree with that notion. He describes it as "genetic"...something that is taught in English class in all levels. We look at the history of the writer and his or her comtemporaries to analyze literature. I see "genetic criticism" like an old sit-in restaurant. It good, maybe even better in some situations. However, maybe you need to be in another place in a hurry (I mean use a criticism that maybe outside of the box), so you might want a drive-in or delivery.

I think that is why Dr. Jerz is teaching this criticism to a minimum. We use this crticism as a defense mechanism, fear from a large literary world out there. As Keesey said "genetic approaches no longer monopolize literary study". And of course we should not let it.