“Those who proclaim and apply to poetic works a "theory of criticism," a "theoretical hermeneutic" are, today, the masters of the academy and the exemplars in the high gossip of arts and letters. Indeed, they have clarioned "the triumph of the theoretical." They are, in truth, either deceiving themselves or purloining from the immense prestige and confidence of science and technology an instrument ontologically inapplicable to their own material. They would enclose water in a sieve.”

— George Steiner

Source: Real Presences (1989), II: The Broken Contract, Ch. 3 (p. 75).

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George Steiner 74

American writer 1929–2020

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George Steiner 74

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