Collaboration as Political Action.

Abstract

He is the image we see when we look in the distorted mirror of our resumes_He is the unified personification of the ways professional critics are taught to portray them selves in official documents?v/tae, grant applications, course descriptions, and so on.... The Magister Implicatus is the ghostly patriarchal figure who haunts our job descriptions, our textbooks, our examination committees, and other quarters of the institution of literary criticism. Not surprisingly, given the history of the institution of criticism, his profile is masculine. Because careers allow for professional advances along a ladder of institutional success (degrees, salaries, ranks and so on), the Magister through his exemplariness inspires critics to compete with one another for awards. (48)