Description
Book SynopsisThis work explores the role of the literary in theory, with wide-ranging analysis of key concepts and disciplinary practices.
Trade Review"In this wide-ranging study, Jonathan Culler gives us an engaging overview of the interdependency of 'literature' and 'theory' that configures the contemporary academic scene . . . I love this book, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the literary and theoretical landscape of contemporary academia." -- John Dolis *
Comparative Literature Studies *
"This difficult yet interesting book asserts that theory is not dead, that theory
is literature and literature theory . . . The book is throughout provocative in these and other defences of theory, and of literature." --
Modern Language Review"
The Literary in Theory takes up questions that have been basic to the enterprise known as 'theory' with a fine mix of historical awareness, lively critical sense, and thoughtful advocacy. Culler's vision of literary studies is inclusive and cumulative: it reminds us that 'learning' is both a noun and a verb, both a result and a process. Is theory dead? This book shows that it has a pulse and a sense of humor." -- Haun Saussy * Yale University *
"[Jonathan Culler's] ultimate aim, as his title suggests, is to make his readers aware of the literary (i.e., the special self-reflexive, questioning, skeptical attitude and practice which seeks to understand the conditions of its own possibility) within theory or Theory, which is an interdisciplinary undertaking informed by this attitude or practice. I would recommend this book to teachers and to students of literature for its clarity, excellent analyses and exemplifications, as well as for its critical attitude, in the sense of critique, of central issues confronting the humanities today." * Walter De Gruyter *
Table of Contents@fmct:Contents @toc4:Acknowledgements iii @toc2:Introduction 000 @toc1:Theory @toc2:1 The Literary in Theory 00 2 The Novel and the Nation 00 3 Resisting Theory 00 @toc1:Concepts @toc2:4 Text: Its Vicissitudes 000 5 The Sign: Saussure and Derrida on Arbitrariness 000 6 The Performative 000 7 Interpretation: In Praise of Overinterpretation 000 8 Omniscience 000 @toc1:Critical Practices @toc2:9 Bad Writing and Good Philosophy 000 10 Writing Criticism 000 11 Doing Cultural Studies 000 12 Comparative Literature, at last 000 @toc4:Index 000
