Post-Interpretive Criticism: A Philosophical Departure from Post-Criticism

Abstract

Post-Interpretive Criticism: A Philosophical Departure from Post-Criticism Author: Dorian Vale This essay establishes Post-Interpretive Criticism as a clear philosophical departure from Post-Criticism, drawing sharp distinctions between the two movements in both ethical orientation and aesthetic methodology. While Post-Criticism often collapses the role of the critic into play, ambiguity, and relativism, Post-Interpretive Criticism reclaims restraint, presence, and moral proximity as sacred responsibilities of witness-based art engagement. Dorian Vale articulates how Post-Interpretive Criticism refuses the compulsion to decode, perform, or resolve—offering instead a framework grounded in custodianship, silence, and the ethics of non-intervention. This is not an evolution of criticism. It is a refusal to participate in its spectacle. Through philosophical distinctions, aesthetic postures, and applied critical consequences, the essay frames Post-Interpretive Criticism as a return to reverent responsibility in the face of trauma, testimony, and sacred residue. It is both a critique of modern critical failure and a call for new discipline among those who write about art. Vale, Dorian. Post-Interpretive Criticism: A Philosophical Departure from Post-Criticism. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17021780 Post-Interpretive Criticism, Post-Criticism, Dorian Vale, philosophical aesthetics, witness-based art, ethical art criticism, moral proximity in art, sacred restraint, interpretation vs. witnessing, art theory 2024, contemporary aesthetics, critique without interpretation, aesthetic responsibility, viewer as evidence, criticism and ethics, slow art, post-critical theory, minimal criticism, aesthetic departure, witnessing in art