Out of Psychoanalysis: Ficto-Criticism 2005-2015

by Jeanne Randolph

Ficto-Criticism was meant to raise critical consciousness, it really was. Ficto-criticism meant exploring the conditions that brought it into being. The conditions in which ficto-criticism sprouted included at that time a modernist premise: criticism's responsibility to artworks is to discuss them objectively. Hanky panky between critics and artists is irrelevant. It was almost as if the critic should appear most interested in writing about a stranger"s art for an audience of strangers (These strangers were somehow in the know.). According to the principles of ficto-criticism these Modernist assumptions discredit the influences between artist lovers, artist drinking buddies, artist fellow workers, artist curators, artist ex-'s, artist writers and artist audience. One of the tenets of ficto-criticism is that long-term loyalties and tenderness are what preserve an art scene from functioning like a corporation.

154 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Jeanne Randolph is one of Canada’s foremost cultural theorists. She is the author of the influential book Psychoanalysis & Synchronized Swimming (1991) as well as Symbolization and Its Discontents (1997), Why Stoics Box (2003), and Ethics of Luxury (2007). Dr. Randolph is also known as an engaging lecturer and performance artist. In universities and galleries across Canada, England, Australia, and Spain she has spoken on topics ranging from the aesthetics of Barbie dolls to the philosophy of Wittgenstein.

Reviews

[Lindsay Joy]

Added to "to-read" because we read some excerpts of it in one of my seminars, but I'll have to order it to read the rest. (I probably will!)

[Jacob Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

"As she ages, the paranoiac’s delusions become more conceptual."