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Thanks. Kermode's book 'A Sense of an Ending' is one of the most brilliant bits of litererary criticism I've read and is far more insightful than anything i've read in the name of critical theory looking at a similar topic. I think the great thing about Kermode is that he makes quite profound points incredibly clearly while most of the critical theory I've read seems to make quite simple points incredibly complicatedly, which tends to make me wonder whether a lot of it is trying to disguise a lack of actual insight with a wall of pseudo-sophisticated double-speak designed to fend off any potential criticism.
To be fair, I see this more as a misuse of critical theory, largely at the hands of young up and coming hot-shot academics, rather than a problem with critical theory itself. I'm sure someone like Walter Benjamin, were he alive, wouldn't approve of half the academic papers that use his name simply to give a bit of credibility to an otherwise quite meaningless essay.
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