Theory's Empire: An Anthology of Dissent

739 Pages·2005·4.28 MB·English

by  Daphne Patai

theory’s empire
“Breakfast Theory:A Morning Methodology,”by JeffReid.Originally appeared in In These
Times,29March 1989.
theory’s empire
An Anthology of Dissent
edited by
daphne patai will h. corral
and
columbia university press
new york
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester,West Sussex
Copyright © 2005Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
The coeditors ofthis volume are deeply grateful for the financial assistance they received in
the preparation ofthis book from Lee R.Edwards,dean ofthe Faculty ofHumanities and
Fine Arts at the University ofMassachusetts Amherst,and from the Office ofResearch and
Sponsored Projects at California State University,Sacramento.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Theory’s empire :an anthology ofdissent / edited by Daphne Patai and Will Corral.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–231–13416–9(alk.paper)—ISBN 0–231–13417–7(pbk.:alk.paper)—ISBN
0–231–50869–7(electronic)
1.Criticism.2.Literature—History and criticism—Theory,etc. I.Patai,Daphne,1943–
PN 81.T4452004
801′.95—dc22
2004058252
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
Designed by Chang Jae Lee
c 10987654321
p 10987654321
contents
introduction 1
part i. theory rising 19
introduction 21
1. Theory,What Theory?
Valentine Cunningham 24
2. Destroying Literary Studies
René Wellek 41
3. Traveling Through American Criticism
Tzvetan Todorov 52
4. The Rise and Fall of“Practical”Criticism:
From I.A.Richards to Barthes and Derrida
Morris Dickstein 60
5. The Power and Limits ofLiterary Theory
Richard Freadman and Seumas Miller 78
6. Is Theory to Blame?
John M.Ellis 92
7. Theory,Theories,and Principles
Denis Donoghue 109
part ii. linguistic turns 121
introduction 123
8. The Linguistic Unconscious:
Saussure and the Post-Saussureans
Raymond Tallis 125
9. Literary Theory and Its Discontents
John R.Searle 147
10. The Quandaries ofthe Referent
Vincent Descombes 176
vi contents
11. The Great Dichotomy
Wendell V.Harris 190
12. The Deconstructive Angel
M. H.Abrams 199
part iii. empire building 213
introduction 215
13. The Grand Academy ofTheory
Frederick Crews 218
14. Theorrhea and Kulturkritik
J. G.Merquior 234
15. Masters and Demons
Brian Vickers 247
16. The Debate Over the Wartime Writings ofPaul de Man:
The Language ofSetting the Record Straight
Alan B.Spitzer 271
17. Presentism:Postmodernism,Poststructuralism,
Postcolonialism
Graham Good 287
18. Preface for a Post-Postcolonial Criticism
Erin O’Connor 297
part iv. theory as a profession 313
introduction 315
19. Author! Author! Reconstructing Roland Barthes
Clara Claiborne Park 318
20. The French Intellectual Habitus and Literary Culture
Niilo Kauppi 330
21. Social Constructionism:Philosophy for the
Academic Workplace
Mark Bauerlein 341
22. Bad Writing
D. G.Myers 354
contents vii
23. Everyman an Übermensch:The Culture of
Cultural Studies
Stephen Adam Schwartz 360
24. The End ofTheory,the Rise ofthe Profession:
A Rant in Search ofResponses
Geoffrey Galt Harpham 381
part v. identities 395
introduction 397
25. The Cant ofIdentity
Todd Gitlin 400
26. The Gender Fallacy
William C.Dowling 411
27. Feminism’s Perverse Effects
Elaine Marks 419
28. Queer Theory,Literature,and the Sexualization of
Everything:The Gay Science
Lee Siegel 424
29. Battle ofthe Bien-Pensant
Kwame Anthony Appiah 441
part vi. theory as surrogate politics 449
introduction 451
30. Oppositional Opposition
Harold Fromm 454
31. Silence Is Consent,or Curse Ye Meroz!
Richard Levin 458
32. Criticism as Displacement
Jeffrey Wallen 476
33. Thick Aestheticism and Thin Nativism
Russell Jacoby 490
34. Casualties ofthe Culture Wars
Eugene Goodheart 508
viii contents
part vii. restoring reason 523
introduction 525
35. Rationality/Science
Noam Chomsky 528
36. The Furor Over Impostures Intellectuelles:What Is All the
Fuss About?
Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal 537
37. The Sleep ofReason
Thomas Nagel 541
38. Staying for an Answer:The Untidy Process ofGroping for
Truth
Susan Haack 552
39. What Is Social Construction?
Paul A.Boghossian 562
40. Postcolonial Science Studies:Ending “Epistemic Violence”
Meera Nanda 575
part viii. still reading after all
these theories . . . 585
introduction 587
41. Literature and Theory:Notes on the Research Programs
ofthe 1980s
David Bromwich 590
42. Changing Epochs
Frank Kermode 605
43. Making Knowledge:Bioepistemology and the
Foundations ofLiterary Theory
Nancy Easterlin 621
44. Literature and Fiction
Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen 636
45. Literary Aesthetics and the Aims ofCriticism
Paisley Livingston 651
46. Crisis in the Humanities? Reconfiguring Literary Study for
the Twenty-first Century
Marjorie Perloff 668
contents ix
coda 685
introduction 687
47. A Hippocratic Oath for the Pluralist
Wayne C.Booth 688
list of contributors 691
index 699