"Garber's 'manifesto' is stylishly unfashionable both in its critique of 'historical correctness' in literary studies and in its summons to return the study of 'human nature' to the Humanities. Lucidly written, full of wit and wisdom, it manages to offer a critical purchase on literary scholarship from the point of view of academic journalism and, at least as important, on journalistic accounts of recent criticism from the point of view of a serious practitioner."—James Chandler, Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Professor of English and Director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago
"In this thoughtful polemic, Marjorie Garber boldly examines the current cultural status of literary studies. Have practitioners of literary studies forfeited the prestige of their discipline to historians? Have quintessentially literary questions about language and form been overwhelmed by an often nonliterary allegiance to the material world? How has it come about that discursive ownership of the concept of 'human nature' has passed from the humanities to the sciences? Exploring such issues in her contagiously readable, graceful style, Garber importantly reasserts the centrality of literary studies to discussions of meaning, value, and identity."—Mary Beth Rose, Professor of English and Director of the Institute for the Humanities, University of Illinois at Chicago