[lbo-talk] Re: The Latest Theory is That Theory Doesn't Matter

[andie nachgeborenen]

Actually, it wouldn't be so bad for these guys to give up philosophy, which they uniformly do badly, and devote themselves mainly to literary analysis, reading poems and plays and novels, explaining the meaning and operation of those texts. (Rather than "mine" -- that is, the ones _I_ was trained to read and analyse.) I don't presuppose any particular approach, don't suggest that they confine themselves to the language and ignore the social context, but what they are supposedly expert in is the study of literature. In this connection, it would be nice to see Carrol at work on a poem again; he doesn't do it often here, but it's very gratifying when he does, and I always learn something when he read his literary criticism. jks

Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com> wrote:
The Latest Theory Is That Theory Doesn't Matter By EMILY EAKIN

These are uncertain times for literary scholars. The era of big theory
is over. The grand paradigms that swept through humanities departments
in the 20th century psychoanalysis, structuralism, Marxism,
deconstruction, post-colonialism have lost favor or been
abandoned.....

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Well, wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. 

In my world, theory is just another word for philosophy and there is
basically never enough of examining the conditions of life and times
and arriving at knowledge, making judgments and taking action.

These guys have just forgotten the other half of their job description
which is teaching students how to do that for themselves.

I guess I am a little disappointed that these panelists can not see
that the entire world (or at least the progressive activists wings)
are engaged in intense policy fights and discourses on virtually
every topic they ever wrote about. What was abandoned?

Chuck Grimes
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