After Post-Structuralism: Interdisciplinarity and Literary Theory (Rethinking Theory)

After Poststructuralism: Interdisciplinary and Literary Theory challenges the premises of and suggests new alternatives to the more extreme approaches in current literary theory. The essays collected here examine the trend of "theorizing" in interdisciplinary studies from the perspective of more rigorous research methodologies, with the aim of establishing the validity of interdisciplinary literary studies and broadening the field of inquiry.

The collection is divided into three groups. The first examines the question of what "interdisciplinarity" has meant in literary studies in the last twenty years, the reasons for its ascension as a trend, and the inherent theoretical flaws in certain poststructuralist positions. The second explores the relationship of theory and practice, while the third group looks ahead to the rich possibilities for thinking and working in practical new directions.

Nancy Easterlin is assistant professor of English at the University of New Orleans.

Barbara Riebling is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania.

Frederick Crews is chairman of the English Department at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Skeptical Engagements and The Critics Bear It Away: American Fiction and the Academy.