Father Brown, Charity, and Christian Contributions to Critique

Knight, Mark (2022) Father Brown, Charity, and Christian Contributions to Critique. Christianity and Literature, 71 (4). pp. 502-512. ISSN 0148-3331

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Abstract

This essay approaches the topic of Christian poetics via a postcritical reading of the figure of Father Brown. I look to Chesterton's literary creation as an opportunity for thinking about Christian charity and its importance for the way in which literary critics practice critique. Along the way, the essay explores the meaning of the postcritical, plays with the conventions of the detective genre, and focuses on some of the recent contributions to the so-called method wars by scholars such as Bruce Robbins and Rita Felski.