Is Shakespeare any Good? reveals why certain literary
works and authors are treated as superior to others, and questions
the literary establishment’s criteria for creating an
imperium of ‘great’ writers.
* Enables readers to articulate and formulate their own arguments
about the quality of literature – including works that
convention forbids us to dislike
* Dismantles the claims of academic criticism –
particularly Theory – to tell us anything useful about why we
like or appreciate literature
* Challenges and shatters many longstanding beliefs about
literature and its evaluation
* Poses serious questions about the value of literature, and
studying literature, and presents these in a lively and
entertainingly provocative manner
Table of Content
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 A Brief Essay on Taste 5
2 The Dreadful Legacy of Modernism 44
3 Is Shakespeare Any Good? 90
4 Mad Theories 131
5 Defining Literature: The Bête Noir of Academia 166
6 Evaluation 193
7 Popular Literature 243
8 Is Literature Any Good For Us? 272
References 321
Index 326
About the author
Richard Bradford is Research Professor of English at the University of Ulster. He is the author of two dozen books, including specialised academic monographs and six literary biographies including Literary Rivals, (2014), The Novel Now (2007) and First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin (2006)
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