Stefan Collini is Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature at Cambridge University, and Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Historical Society. His research is mainly in the relationship between literature and intellectual history from the early 20th century the present, and his current research focuses on the cultural role of, and the historical assumptions expressed in, literary criticism in Britain from 1920 to 1970. His books include Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain (2006), Common Reading: Critics, Historians, Publics (2008), That's Offensive! Criticism, Identity, Respect (2011) and What Are Universities For? (2012). Dr. Xie Longxin, on behalf of Foreign Literature Studies, interviewed Prof. Collini in 2014 when he visited the Faculty of English of Cambridge University. In the interview, Prof. Collini expresses his views on the relationship between cultural criticism and politics, and literature and reality. He emphasizes that cultural criticism has a political dimension, but the effectiveness of criticism is limited; criticism cannot aspire to "replace" politics. He believes that cultural criticism should be about more than politics and about greater ideals of human flourishing. He also points out that literature is a kind of reflection on reality, and that cultural criticism always involves a form of ethical criticism.
