>The object of the literary/cultural critic is not to enable people to
>understand the periodic table or mathematical theorems; it is (or should
>be) to help people at large understand the rights and responsibilities
>that they have as social and political beings. If you really believe in
>democracy, I maintain you have to be a populist.
Why is the object of the literary/cultural critic 'to help people at large understand the rights and responsibilities that they have as social and political beings'? I can't see why this should be so more than say mathematicians or scientists. Not at all. And it certainly lets a hell of a lot of people out of the responsibility.
And certain 'to help people at large understand the rights and responsibilities that they have as social and political beings' is *not* the 'object' of the literary/cultural critic -- that's literature/culture.
Catherine