Re-reading Leavis

For too long F. R. Leavis has been reviled by the critical establishment. Gary Day explains why this has been the case and why it is time to meet the challenge of his work. In this groundbreaking and controversial book, Day shows that post-structuralism, which defined itself in opposition to Leavis, nevertheless repeats a number of his key ideas. This, he argues, represents a failure to read Leavis fully and, by implication, a failure to come to terms with the radical dimension of his writing, which was always more critical of the commodification of experience than post-structuralism or…