Historicizing Theory - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791459624 ISBN 13: 9780791459621

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791459624
• ISBN 13: 9780791459621
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 332
• Editor: Herman Peter C.