Founded in 1974, Critical Inquiry is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the best critical thought in the arts and humanities.https://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3muqaehuk2s2g"Paralleling an exponential expansion of book knowledge, these specimens spurred a wholesale revamp of media systems for organizing, indexing, and storing samples and information." From our new issue, read Tung-Hui Hu's "Grids and Bags": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74247505 Sep 2026 00:36 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3muqaehuk2s2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mungmuhefk2s"Magarik reads Adam, Raphael, and Michael as character-narrators whose fallible narration is an essential part of Milton’s project of accommodation." New in review, Eve Houghton on Raphael Magarik's Fictions of God: https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/eve_houghton_reviews_fictions_of_god/03 Sep 2026 21:50 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mungmuhefk2shttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3munglbnerq2e"A hybrid subjectivity is emerging on the horizon of the twenty-first century." Read Franco “Bifo” Berardi's "The Bitter Cup" on the CI blog. https://critinq.wordpress.com/2026/09/03/the-bitter-cup-notes-about-artificial-intelligence-and-natural-stupidity/03 Sep 2026 21:50 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3munglbnerq2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mug6e6l2u22p"Hooke’s complex engagement with obviousness directly informs his various declarations of intellectual property." From our new issue, read Violet Spurlock's "An Anatomy of Obviousness": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74247801 Sep 2026 00:34 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mug6e6l2u22phttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3muihdhtel225Autumn issue is out now! Featuring essays by Violet Spurlock, Tung-Hui Hu, Jessica Sherrill, Grace Lavery, Garrett Stewart, George Baker, Martha Schwendener, and Vilém Flusser https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/past_issues/issue/autumn_2026/01 Sep 2026 22:20 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3muihdhtel225https://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mug6e6l2u22p"Hooke’s complex engagement with obviousness directly informs his various declarations of intellectual property." From our new issue, read Violet Spurlock's "An Anatomy of Obviousness": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74247801 Sep 2026 00:34 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mug6e6l2u22phttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mu6gzcwvqc2e"I do not think that the historical-political crisis that faces we trans people is merely allegorical; on the contrary, it is, always, embodied and symbolic, material and discursive." From our new issue, read Emily McAvan's "Off the Clock": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74113628 Aug 2026 22:48 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu6gzcwvqc2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mu3vb4k54c2e"Their guiding question is how art and literature employ devices of both attraction and distance to induce empathic alignment with negative phenomena." Fredrik Renard on Stefano Ercolino and Massimo Fusillo's Negative Empathy in Literature and the Arts: https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/fredrik_renard_reviews_negative_empathy_in_literature_and_the_arts/27 Aug 2026 22:24 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu3vb4k54c2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mtuegjdzqc2g"The cis are anxious about the way the binary language of sex won’t stay put. To be trans is to confront them with that anxiety." From our new issue, read McKenzie Wark's "Miss Destiny": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74113824 Aug 2026 22:35 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtuegjdzqc2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mr3wn43gos2eOver the next few days on the CI blog, we are presenting "Libidinal Investments in Fascist Politics," featuring essays by Lisa Wedeen, Jason Frank, and William Mazzarella. https://critinq.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/libidinal-investments-in-fascist-politics/20 Jul 2026 18:33 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr3wn43gos2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mtmxnaudns26"Following 1948, the Palestinian narrative was largely based on describing the Nakba as a culminating event that destroyed an entire society in a single stroke." From our new issue, read Maurice Ebileeni's "Digital Palestine and the National Imagination": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74116421 Aug 2026 23:57 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtmxnaudns26https://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mtkb5leka22q"Affect theory has become, Downing says, the dominant episteme of our time, which is not to the collective good." New in review, Laura Kipnis on Lisa Downing's Against Affect: https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/laura_kipnis_reviews_against_affect/20 Aug 2026 22:09 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtkb5leka22qhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mtcvblnpw22e"The Euro-American thrift culture that Nesbit invokes was a response in the 1970s to depressed wages in a culture saturated by an abundance of desirable images and goods." From our new issue, read Chris Reitz's "Szene New York": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74116317 Aug 2026 23:48 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtcvblnpw22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mt3dtufauk2z"This study departs from the artefactual and structural properties of the artistic object 'towards literature and art as a case of human agency.'" New in review, Senida Poenariu on Patricia Kolaiti's Literature and Art as Cognitive Objects: https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/senida_poenariu_reviews_literature_and_art_as_cognitive_objects/14 Aug 2026 23:48 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mt3dtufauk2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3msrdy7pgo22k"As exemplified by the workers at the Walla Walla Foundry, a person need not have formal academic training to be deeply knowledgeable of how art works in a practical sense." From our new issue, read Hannah Cohen's "Production Value": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74126811 Aug 2026 00:23 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3msrdy7pgo22khttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3msjkvx4qo22g"Political Romanticism extends Schmitt’s attack on the individual and quarantines political subjectivity under the name Romanticism." From our new issue, Alexander Freer's "Carl Schmitt, Romanticism, and Political Form": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74114007 Aug 2026 22:06 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3msjkvx4qo22ghttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3msh3ta25uc24"The book posits hydrojustice as the immanent condition of bodies of water—human, nonhuman, geological, celestial—flowing along and apart from one another." New in review, Sandip Sarkar on Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos's Hydrojustice: https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/sandip_sarkar_reviews_hydrojustice/06 Aug 2026 22:31 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3msh3ta25uc24https://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3ms7nbbkoic2w"Esports . . . are crucial in understanding the continuity between racialized, outsourced 'sweatshop' labor and high-tech but no less exploitative forms." From our new issue, read Tara Fickle's "Asian/American Esports": https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/74125803 Aug 2026 23:22 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3ms7nbbkoic2whttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mry4lw22gc25"Modern American poetry, she argues, reasons inductively rather than deductively, moving from particulars towards provisional generalities rather than letting a governing intuition shine through it." Sneha Chowdhury on Johanna Winant's Lyric Logic: https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/sneha_chowdhury_reviews_lyric_logic/31 Jul 2026 23:35 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mry4lw22gc25https://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mrxs3q52ps2fAutumn issue is coming soon! Vilém Flusser on cover.31 Jul 2026 20:27 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrxs3q52ps2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mrgllwjtks2y"The painting is calculated to engage our amazement . . . by its very immensity and boldness; it is spectacular, and we are enchanted by the spectacle." Remembering Joel Snyder: read "'Las Meninas' and the Mirror of the Prince," Free Access on CI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/44830725 Jul 2026 00:15 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrgllwjtks2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mrdvfkmiv22b"If This Be Magic evinces a welcome and wholly unsubtle cosmopolitanism which is also on show in Hahn’s treatment of English as a multipolar language." New in review, Chenxin Jiang on Daniel Hahn's If This Be Magic: https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/chenxin_jiang_reviews_if_this_be_magic/23 Jul 2026 22:33 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrdvfkmiv22bhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mrapdrj6pv2s"A specter is haunting the economy—Or maybe it’s a phantasm?" Read William Mazzarella's "What Economy?" on the CI blog. https://critinq.wordpress.com/2026/07/22/what-economy/22 Jul 2026 16:06 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrapdrj6pv2shttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mr67c3b5pl2m"What unites counterrevolutionaries is not necessarily a shared political vision or ideological program but rather mutual opposition to egalitarian movements." Read Jason Frank's "Carnality and the Counterrevolution" on the CI blog. https://critinq.wordpress.com/2026/07/21/carnality-and-the-counterrevolution/21 Jul 2026 16:14 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr67c3b5pl2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mr4hyzgwgk2s"The art of Rembrandt or Michelangelo can, for example, only be characterized by trying to qualify their position . . . outside the line of objectivism and subjectivism." Remembering Joel Snyder: Read "The Concept of Artistic Volition," Free Access on CI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/44813820 Jul 2026 23:44 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr4hyzgwgk2shttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mr3xx5nynx2b"Trump arouses and manages his followers’ desire for revenge in a process psychoanalysts might describe as adjacent to jouissance." Read Lisa Wedeen's "Fascist Temptations in the Era of Trump" on the CI blog. https://critinq.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/fascist-temptations-in-the-era-of-trump/20 Jul 2026 18:57 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr3xx5nynx2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mr3wn43gos2eOver the next few days on the CI blog, we are presenting "Libidinal Investments in Fascist Politics," featuring essays by Lisa Wedeen, Jason Frank, and William Mazzarella. https://critinq.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/libidinal-investments-in-fascist-politics/20 Jul 2026 18:33 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr3wn43gos2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mqsdobmszk2u"He apparently excused his own haughtiness and abuses in the name of poetry rooted in the blood and ashes of fascism." New in review, Bruce J. Krajewski on Anna Arno's Paul Celan: A Life, translated by Soren Gauger: https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/bruce_j_krajewski_reviews_paul_celan_a_life/16 Jul 2026 23:00 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqsdobmszk2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mqkupscjnc2n"Had Velazquez stood peering into the room exactly opposite the doorway figure . . . he could not possibly have seen himself in the mirror." Remembering Joel Snyder - read "Reflexions on 'Las Meninas,'" Free Access at CI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/44810713 Jul 2026 23:44 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqkupscjnc2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/criticalinquiry.bsky.social/post/3mqkule5dgc2n"Had Velazquez stood peering into the room exactly opposite the doorway figure . . . he could not possibly have seen himself in the mirror." Remembering Joel Snyder - read "Reflexions on 'Las Meninas,'" Free Access at CI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/44810713 Jul 2026 23:41 +0000at://did:plc:ode4z3mkwp6eznnc6rxoj2x3/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqkule5dgc2n