French Literature Reviews - 2026
É. Loret, Petit manuel critique
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Petit manuel critique
Eric Loret
Publication date: 14/02/2015 Publisher: Les Prairies Ordinaires Series: Essais ISBN: 978-2-35096-100-2 EAN: 9782350961002 Format: Paperback No. of pages: 186 p.
Now stripped of its authority and accessible to all, criticism is striving to forge a new legitimacy in the Web 2.0 era, where everyone engages in a competitive display of tastes and a passion for rankings. Examining from both a phenomenological and pragmatic perspective why the critique of taste is not merely an adjunct to aesthetic experience but truly constitutive of it, this essay uses practical examples alongside Schiller, Hume, and Dewey to outline methodological elements for sharing our critical "drive" within the horizon of a differential community.
The aim is thus to lay bare what we call "taste" in order to better communicate our experience of the world and establish critical principles extending far beyond the realm of aesthetics alone. We discover that a "good" critique is always creative and that, contrary to the performance metrics dominating the neoliberal order, its political role is to indefinitely postpone conclusion—in other words, condemnation.
Eric Loret worked as a literary and film critic, and subsequently as a visual arts and music critic for the daily newspaper Libération, as well as for France Culture.
The practice of criticism has long occupied a central place in intellectual history, evolving from the formalist traditions of the eighteenth century to contemporary digital discourse. Philosophers such as Friedrich Schiller, David Hume, and John Dewey established foundational inquiries into the nature of aesthetic judgment and the role of the observer. Readers interested in the history of aesthetics and the evolution of critical theory may find this analysis relevant.
In the context of modern media, the proliferation of online rankings and performance metrics has transformed how cultural artifacts are evaluated and shared. This work examines the critique of taste from a phenomenological and pragmatic perspective, using examples alongside Schiller, Hume, and Dewey to outline methodological elements for sharing critical drive. It considers how critical practice can move beyond condemnation to foster a differential community, suggesting that the process of analysis serves to deepen our understanding of the world.