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List of contents
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Antitheory and its Discontents
Jeffrey R. Di Leo, University of Houston-Victoria, USA
Part 1 Antitheory as Theory
1 Antitheory 2.0: The Case of Derrida and the Question of Literature
Jeffrey Nealon, Penn State University, USA
2 Crisis Theory after Crisis
Peter Hitchcock, CUNY Graduate Center and Baruch College of the City University of New York, USA
3 Epic Fail: Prolegomenon to Failing Again, Finally
Irving Goh, National University of Singapore, Singapore
4 Antitheory, Positivism, and Critical Pedagogy
Kenneth J. Saltman, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA
5 Down with Theory!: Reflections on the Ends of Antitheory
Jeffrey R. Di Leo
Part 2 Reading as Antitheory
6 Critique Unlimited
Robert T. Tally Jr., Texas State University, USA
7 How Not to be Governed Like That: Theory Steams On
Robin Truth Goodman, Florida State University, USA
8 Antitheory in Postcolonial Perspective
Nicole Simek, Whitman College, USA
9 Eaten Alive, or, Why the Death of Theory is not Antitheory
Christian Haines, Pennsylvania State University, USA
10 Theory as Meatgrinder
Harold Aram Veeser, City College of New York (English Department) and the CUNY Graduate Center (Middle East and Middle-Eastern American Center), USA
Part 3 Philosophy, Theory, and Antitheory
11 Theory Does Not Exist
Paul Allen Miller, University of South Carolina, USA
12 (Anti)Theory’s Resistances
Tom Eyers, Duquesne University, USA
13 Forget Latour
Zahi Zalloua, Whitman College, USA
14 After Anti-foundationalism: Ten Theses on the Limits of Antitheory
Christopher Breu, Illinois State University, USA
Index
About the author
Jeffrey R. Di Leo is Professor of English and Philosophy at the University of Houston-Victoria, USA . He is editor and founder of the critical theory journal symploke, editor-in-chief of American Book Review, and Executive Director of the Society for Critical Exchange and its Winter Theory Institute. He is author, editor, or co-editor of 40 books. His recent books include Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: An Overview (2023), Out of Print (2024), and Happiness (2024).
Summary
Antitheory has long been a venerable brand of theory and – although seemingly opposite – the two impulses have long been intertwined. Antitheory is the first book to explore this vexed relationship from the 20th century to the present day, examining antitheory both in its historical context and its current state. The book brings together leading scholars from a wide range of Humanities disciplines to ask such questions as:
· What is antitheory?
· What does it mean to be against theory in the new millennium?
· What is the current state of post-theory, the alleged deaths of theory, and the critique of critique?
Foreword
Leading scholars from a wide range of Humanities disciplines explore the changing relationship between theory and its opposite, from the 20th century to the present day
Additional text
Antitheory capitalizes on the decline of higher education, celebrates the impoverishment of thinking, relishes solipsism, criticizes in bad faith, and—get this—has the audacity to call itself Theory! This superb volume of essays explores these and other troubling features of antitheory—above all showing why antitheory is wrong six ways from Sunday. Composed by expert readers in Theory well versed in current debates, every chapter forcefully demonstrates that the fate of the humanities in these stupid times depends on the vitality of Theory in its most critical and revolutionary form.
