BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA: WAR OF WORDS

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"Depoliticizing" literature is not that simple. A fourth of the ALSC budget comes from the very conservative Bradley Foundation, which has subsidized the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute as well as the authors of The Real Anita Hill and The Bell Curve. Alter insists that the foundation never interferes in his group's operations. A bigger problem for him is that ideological lit-crit is so popular within the profession. Can a small band of traditionalists hold it off? They look for signs of hope. In an issue last year of Lingua Franca, Duke professor Frank Lentricchia, a major figure in the politicization of literary studies, poured out his misgivings about "the pounding chatter about sexism and so on." Even if the profession succumbs for good and Othello is taught forever as just one more wrongful instance of white male shenanigans, Alter and his friends will still have the last consolation of literary critics. In a lot of wars, the best writing comes from the losing side.