When Remorse Blossoms: Birth of a Critical Theorist

Collection of Critical Essays After being convicted of robbery and assault, Salih Israil. discovers the power of remorse and embarks on a life-altering, intellectual journey that earns him an Associates of Arts, a Bachelor of Arts in Language and Literature, and a Master of Professional Studies in Urban Ministry. Along the way, he is aided, and at times carried, by some very bright and creative minds: Jessie Redmon Fauset, .Richard Wright, Francis Harper, Walter Mosely, W.E.B. Dubois, Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Walter Benjamin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Friedrich Schiller, each of whom inspires his interest in language and provides him a platform to critically engage the nature and function of language as it relates to our very understanding of who we are, and unexpectedly focuses his interest in language to a vehicle of change and transformation: literature. While it is Israil's acknowledgement of guilt coupled with an infusion of hope-remorse-that sparks the major turning point in his life, that spark is kindled by self-examination and a dialogue with thought-provoking literature. The essays collected here are the product of that dialogue. They provide a glimpse of the intellectual path he traversed in undergraduate school. He offers this collection as a testimony of the power of literature, literary theory, and critical theory to transform lives, and hopes they inspire you in some way.