Estranging the Novel: Poland, Ireland, and Theories of World Literature by Katarzyna Bartoszyńska (review)

Collective Understanding ends with a call to arms of sorts. Writing against formalists who would double down on the exceptionalism of literature and literary studies, Mowry asks for literary studies to “turn outward toward collaborative projects” in a way that would highlight the “collective nature of knowledge” (208). In this sense, this book aims not just at historical recovery, but a reform of critical practice based on the kind of collective hermeneutics it describes and practices. A collectivist literary criticism that produced more work like Mowry’s would certainly be worthwhile.