Richard Shusterman's 'L'objet de la critique littéraire' republished in French

Éditions questions théoriques has published a French translation of Richard Shusterman's 1984 work 'L'objet de la critique littéraire'. The American philosopher, known for pragmatist aesthetics and his recent 'Conscience du corps. Pour une soma-esthétique' (2007), revisits his doctoral thesis on the ontological status of artworks, logic of interpretation and evaluation, and the relationship between critical, artistic, and aesthetic activity. In the preface, Shusterman acknowledges his subsequent departure from analytic philosophy, criticizing 'the scholastic limits of analytic aesthetics,' yet maintains that core issues like pluralism remain central. He argues against the notion that criticism has a single logical aim or method, defending 'the plurality of aims and frameworks of literary criticism.' The book examines three main approaches—descriptivist, prescriptivist, and performativist—and questions the ambition to make criticism a scientific activity. Shusterman contends that understanding the diverse logics of interpretation, often obscured by shared terms like 'the poem' or 'the correct interpretation,' should encourage readers to become critics themselves.