The Point magazine features a conversation between Villanova alum, Jessica Swoboda, and Professor Javadizadeh, about criticism in public. In it, Professor Javadizadeh discusses his writing--both academic scholarship and his public writing.
Here's a taste:
"I’ve been thinking recently about something that the critic R. P. Blackmur said, which is that the thing that makes poetry poetry (and what distinguishes it from mere “verse”) is that it “adds to the stock of available reality.” And that feels like a sensible definition to me. I like that definition of poetry. I think that a critic, whether writing in an academic journal or whether writing in a sort of journalistic space for magazine or whatever, might help a reader see how a poem, for instance, has added to the stock of available reality. Here’s the new experience you can have while reading this poem. But I also think that the critic can, at times anyway, make their own writing do that for a reader."
Read the full interview here.
