Description
Book SynopsisA theoretical exploration of the connected roles of area studies, poststructuralist theory, and comparative literature in constructing the world as a target for U.S. imperialism
Trade Review“
The Age of the World Target is a catalyzing tour-de-force. Rey Chow provides a poignant, persuasive staging of a topic that will shape the future of literary and cultural studies: the role of particular poststructuralist claims within the fields of area studies, identity politics, and comparative literature.”—Bill Brown, author of
A Sense of Things: The Object Matter of American Literature“Rey Chow is one of the most learned and imaginative left critics writing today, and
The Age of the World Target is possibly her finest book yet. Elegantly traversing philosophy, literature, history, and politics, Chow refracts our political times through our academic practices in a fashion that is alternately pedagogical, biting, lyrical, and profound.”—Wendy Brown, author of
Edgework: Critical Essays on Knowledge and PoliticsTable of ContentsPreface ix
Introduction. European Theory in America 1
I. The Age of the World Target: Atomic Bombs, Alterity, Area Studies 25
II. The Interruption of Referentiality: or, Poststructuralism's Outside 45
III. The Old/New Question of Comparison in Literary Studies: A Post-European Perspective 71
Notes 93
Index 117
