>Quoting Diane Monaco <diane.monaco at emich.edu>:
>
>> Theory in chaos
>> By David Kirby | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
>>
>>
>> Henry Louis Gates Jr. - star Ivy League academic who was recently the
>> object of a turf battle between Harvard and Princeton Universities -
is
>> soon to publish "The Third World of Theory," a book that promises not
>> only to extend literary study into uncharted pluralist and
>> multicultural domains but also, according to the current Oxford
>> University Press catalog, offer "a unifying statement about the future
>> of theory."
>
>Skip Gates, to the rescue! Most of the really interesting theoretical
work today
>is at the intersection of postmodernism/First World culture studies and
>postcolonialism/Third World culture studies. This is actually an
amazing time to
>be a theorist -- there are multiple cultural revolutions happening in
the EU and
>East Asia, the media and videogame cultures are going like gangbusters,
etc.
This is so interesting, Dennis, and it's an amazing time to be teaching related topics as well. In my course on postmodernism for first year students last semester, I put to together a critical mapping of all the post-structuralist, social, political, feminist, postcolonial theorists, writers, movements, events, etc. I thought should be there (still missed so many connections) -- and the students absolutely loved it! We actually used the mapping throughout the entire course and it really helped their understanding. It WAS a strange looking matrix itself, but it worked. I also integrated the MATRIX movie throughout the course -- again loved by these first year students.
I unfortunately realized too late in the semester to do something with the videogame culture part, just how extensively and elaborately these students are using Xboxes throughout their world: dorm rooms, across campus, and beyond. It's so amazing.
Dennis, do you have any references for up-to-date mappings?
Thanks, Diane