Historicizing Theory
Published on 4. December 2003
Book
Paperback/Softback
332 pages
978-0-7914-5962-1 (ISBN)
Description
Examines deconstruction, New Historicism, postcolonialism, and other contemporary theoretical movements in their historical contexts.
Historicizing Theory provides the first serious examination of contemporary theory in relation to the various twentieth-century historical and political contexts out of which it emerged. Theory-a broad category that is often used to encompass theoretical approaches as varied as deconstruction, New Historicism, and postcolonialism-has often been derided as a mere "relic" of the 1960s. In order to move beyond such a simplistic assessment, the essays in this volume examine such important figures as Harold Bloom, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Stephen Greenblatt, and Edward Said, situating their work in a variety of contexts inside and outside of the 1960s, including World War II, the Holocaust, the Algerian civil war, and the canon wars of the 1980s. In bringing us face-to-face with the history of theory, Historicizing Theory recuperates history for theory and asks us to confront some of the central issues and problems in literary studies today.
Historicizing Theory provides the first serious examination of contemporary theory in relation to the various twentieth-century historical and political contexts out of which it emerged. Theory-a broad category that is often used to encompass theoretical approaches as varied as deconstruction, New Historicism, and postcolonialism-has often been derided as a mere "relic" of the 1960s. In order to move beyond such a simplistic assessment, the essays in this volume examine such important figures as Harold Bloom, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Stephen Greenblatt, and Edward Said, situating their work in a variety of contexts inside and outside of the 1960s, including World War II, the Holocaust, the Algerian civil war, and the canon wars of the 1980s. In bringing us face-to-face with the history of theory, Historicizing Theory recuperates history for theory and asks us to confront some of the central issues and problems in literary studies today.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 225 mm
Width: 149 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
431 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-5962-1 (9780791459621)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Peter C. Herman
Historicizing Theory
E-Book
02/2012
1st Edition
State University of New York Press
€38.49
Available for download
Person
Peter C. Herman is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University. He is the author and editor of many books, including Day Late, Dollar Short: The Next Generation and the New Academy, also published by SUNY Press.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Resistance to Historicizing Theory
Peter C. Herman
1. The Holocaust, French Poststructuralism, the American Literary Academy, and Jewish Identity Poetics
Evan Carton
2. Michel Foucault and the Specter of War
Karen Raber
3. Historicizing Paul de Man's Master Trope Prosopopeia: Belgium's Trauma of 1940, the Nazi Volkskoerper, and Versions of the Allegorical Body Politic
James J. Paxson
4. "Nostalgeria" and "Structure, Sign, Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences"
Lee Morrissey
5. Jean Baudrillard and May '68: An Acoustic Archaeology
Andrea Loselle
6. Stephen Greenblatt's "X"-Files: The Rhetoric of Containment and Invasive Disease in "Invisible Bullets" and "The Sources of Soviet Conduct"
Jonathan Gil Harris
7. New Historicizing the New Historicism; or, Did Stephen Greenblatt Watch the Evening News in Early 1968?
Ivo Kamps
8. The End of Culture
Loren Glass
9. Literature, Incorporated: Harold Bloom, Theory, and the Canon
Marc Redfield
10. The Sixties, the New Left, and the Emergence of Cultural Studies in the United States
David R. Shumway
11. The Postcolonial Godfather
H. Aram Veeser
12. The Spectrality of the Sixties
Benjamin Bertram
13. Afterword: Historicism and Its Limits
Morris Dickstein
Contributors
Index
Introduction: The Resistance to Historicizing Theory
Peter C. Herman
1. The Holocaust, French Poststructuralism, the American Literary Academy, and Jewish Identity Poetics
Evan Carton
2. Michel Foucault and the Specter of War
Karen Raber
3. Historicizing Paul de Man's Master Trope Prosopopeia: Belgium's Trauma of 1940, the Nazi Volkskoerper, and Versions of the Allegorical Body Politic
James J. Paxson
4. "Nostalgeria" and "Structure, Sign, Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences"
Lee Morrissey
5. Jean Baudrillard and May '68: An Acoustic Archaeology
Andrea Loselle
6. Stephen Greenblatt's "X"-Files: The Rhetoric of Containment and Invasive Disease in "Invisible Bullets" and "The Sources of Soviet Conduct"
Jonathan Gil Harris
7. New Historicizing the New Historicism; or, Did Stephen Greenblatt Watch the Evening News in Early 1968?
Ivo Kamps
8. The End of Culture
Loren Glass
9. Literature, Incorporated: Harold Bloom, Theory, and the Canon
Marc Redfield
10. The Sixties, the New Left, and the Emergence of Cultural Studies in the United States
David R. Shumway
11. The Postcolonial Godfather
H. Aram Veeser
12. The Spectrality of the Sixties
Benjamin Bertram
13. Afterword: Historicism and Its Limits
Morris Dickstein
Contributors
Index