Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Malcolm, Janet - Robin Tolmach Lakoff and Mandy Aftel (essay date 16 December 1996)

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Robin Tolmach Lakoff and Mandy Aftel (essay date 16 December 1996)

SOURCE: Lakoff, Robin Tolmach, and Mandy Aftel. “In the Malcolm Archives.” Nation 263, no. 20 (16 December 1996): 32-5.

[In the following essay, Lakoff and Aftel describe the techniques Malcolm employs in her writing to persuade readers, disapproving of her subtle guidance, and asserting that nonfiction should be written from a completely objective stance.]

Janet Malcolm covers the trendiest topics of current intellectual discourse: psychoanalysis, its powers and its decline; crime and punishment; the nature of creativity and the price it exacts. Sometimes she subjects herself and her work to pitiless critique: Biography is ghoulish; journalism is a scam. Thus she wins our trust along with our admiration.

Malcolm's style is as worthy of admiration as her content: lucid yet artful, complex but not turgid. We appreciate her skill in playing postmodern games:...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Peter Thompson (review date 30 March 1980)
   2. Clive James (review date 18 December 1980)
   3. Anthony Storr (review date 16 September 1981)
   4. Ann Shearer (review date 26 February 1982)
   5. Brigid Brophy (essay date 15 April 1982)
   6. Harvey Mindess (review date 17 June 1984)
   7. John Seabrook (review date 24 July 1984)
   8. Mary-Kay Wilmers (review date 18 April 1985)
   9. David Rieff (review date 11 March 1990)
   10. Catharine R. Stimpson (review date 25 June 1990)
   11. Linda Christmas (review date 25 January 1991)
   12. Julian Symons (review date 25 January 1991)
   13. Lynn Barber (review date 21 March 1991)
   14. Michael Hoyt (essay date March-April 1991)
   15. Gertrude Himmelfarb (essay date April 1991)
   16. Pamela Erens (review date summer 1993)
   17. Phoebe Pettingell (review date 14-28 March 1994)
   18. Elaine Showalter (review date 12 May 1994)
   19. David Bromwich (review date 6 June 1994)
   20. Bernard Crick (review date 7 October 1994)
   21. Anne Chisholm (review date 12 November 1994)
   22. Rebecca Viney (review date winter 1995)
   23. Rosemary Dinnage (review date 6 April 1995)
   24. Wendy Kagan (review date 1995)
   25. Amanda Mitchison (review date 26 April 1996)
   26. Robin Tolmach Lakoff and Mandy Aftel (essay date 16 December 1996)
   27. Robert Coles (review date spring 1998)
   28. Anne Chisholm (review date 17 October 1998)
   29. Jo Ann Citron (review date March 1999)
   30. Richard Lamb (review date 5 April 1999)
   31. Joyce Carol Oates (review date 8 April 1999)
   32. Richard A. Posner (review date 19 April 1999)
   33. Stephan Landsman (essay date May 2000)
   34. John Bayley (review date 29 November 2001)
   35. Albert Bermel (review date November-December 2001)
   36. Sebastian Smee (review date 8 February 2003)
   37. Doris L. Eder (essay date October 2004)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright