Labeling criticism in advance with political names contradicts genuine critical inquiry

Evidence

It needs to be said that criticism modified in advance by labels like ‘Marxism’ or ‘liberalism’ is, in my view, an oxymoron…. The net effect of ‘doing’ Marxist criticism or writing at the present time is of course to declare political preference, but it is also to put oneself outside a great deal of things going on in the world, so to speak, and in other kinds of criticism. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 277

Categorization

• XREF: Recalls Said’s own critique of method/doctrine in Orientalism and general debates about committed criticism vs. free inquiry. — connects to: Seeking correct definitions is itself politically subversive — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 514; Academics are more disturbed by naming bias than by bias itself — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 82