Rorty on literary criticism

The recently deceased pragmatist liberal Richard Rorty, in his key text Contigency Irony and Solidarity makes the fascinating observation that for 'ironists' - by which he means people who deny that there is any metaphysical referent to our language and that we ought always be aware of that as we use grand sounding words - for ironists, literary critics are 'moral advisors', not metaphysicians.

As he writes:

literary criticism does for ironists what the search for universal moral principles is supposed to do for metaphysicians. p. 80

Literary critics, you see, engage in the placing of books into traditions of books. Their business is not absolute claims, but relative ones: relating books to other books. Literary critics have basically read alot, and so are less likely to get sucked in by any one book. The critic's job goes well beyond the bounds of mere literary criticism, of course:

...the critic is now expected to facilitate moral reflection by suggesting revisions in the cann of moral exemplars and advisers, and suggesting ways in which the tensions within this canon may be eased - or, where necessary, sharpened. p. 82