Post-sixties Narratives in Contemporary American Cultural Criticism

ABSTRACT As a special type of criticism, post-sixties narratives represent a very important part of contemporary American cultural criticism. These narratives shape the American collective memory and the national mood – the structure of feeling of American society. Russell Jacoby’s post-sixties narrative, from-bohemia-to-academia, is a case in point. It posits Bohemia and Academia as two contrasting historical tropes, spatial tropes as well as political tropes, to represent contemporary American intellectual life. Such a “Bohemian narrative” offers the “against the grain” narrative tension in Jacoby’s post-sixties narrative. Examination of various post-sixties narratives may help us obtain a new perspective on contemporary American cultural criticism and, at the same time, deepen our understanding of contemporary American culture.