Ten Lessons in Theory: An Introduction to Theoretical Writing PDF
Preview Ten Lessons in Theory: An Introduction to Theoretical Writing
Ten Lessons in Theory ii Ten Lessons in Theory An Introduction to Theoretical Writing Calvin Thomas NEW YORK • LONDON • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 1385 Broadway 50 Bedford Square New York London NY 10018 WC1B 3DP USA UK www.bloomsbury.com First published 2013 © Calvin Thomas, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thomas, Calvin, 1956– Ten lessons in theory: an introduction to theoretical writing/Calvin Thomas. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4411-5326-5 (hardcover: alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4411-5770-6 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. English language–Rhetoric–Study and teaching. 2. Knowledge, Theory of. 3. Criticism–History. 4. Literature–History and criticism–Theory, etc. I. Title. PE1403.T46 2013 808’.042–dc23 2012051555 ISBN HB: 978-1-6235-6989-1 PB: 978-1-6235-6402-5 ePub: 978-1-6235-6304-2 ePDF: 978-1-6235-6164-2 Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India For Ihab Hassan vi Contents Acknowledgments x Preface: “Something worth reading”: Theory and/as the Art of the Sentence xi Introductory Matters: What Theory Does, Why Theory Lives 1 I. “Theory is [undead] everywhere” 1 II. The problem with givens 7 III. Just being difficult/difficultly being just 14 Part 1 Antiphysis: Five Lessons in Textual Anthropogenesis 25 Lesson One: “The world must be made to mean” 27 —or, in(tro)ducing the subject of human reality I. Work with words 27 II. Post-oceanic feelings 30 Lesson Two: “Meaning is the polite word for pleasure” 34 —or, how the beast in the nursery learns to read I. Bungle in the jungle 34 II. L’être pour la lettre 40 III. Happier endings 44 Lesson Three: “Language is by nature fictional” 48 —or, why the word for moonlight can’t be moonlight I. Down to earth 48 II. Giving (up) the finger 51 III. Thanks for nothing 53 Lesson Four: “Desire must be taken literally” 59 —a few words on death, sex, and interpretation I. “a few words” 59 II. “on death” 66 viii Contents III. “sex” 73 IV. “and interpretation” 80 Lesson Five: “You are not yourself” 88 —or, I (think, therefore I) is an other I. Missing persons, bodies in pieces 88 II. Ideology is eternal 102 III. Aesthetics of resistance? 115 Part 2 Extimacy: Five Lessons in the Utter Alterity of Absolute Proximity 123 Lesson Six: “This restlessness is us” 125 —or, the least that can be said about Hegel I. Thesis 125 II. Antithesis 132 III. Ecce Homo 139 Lesson Seven: “There is no document of civilization that is not at the same time a document of barbarism” 146 —or, the fates of literary formalism I. “not a pretty thing” 146 II. What’s the matter with formalism? 151 III. Absolutions of irony 158 IV. Strategies of estrangement 165 Lesson Eight: “The unconscious is structured like a language” 172 —or, invasions of the signifier I. Without positive terms 172 II. Adventures in metaphor and metonymy 180 III. “the phallus”—for lack of a worser word 190 Lesson Nine: “There is nothing outside the text” 201 —or, fear of the proliferation of meaning I. Given to excess 201 Contents ix II. “What are we calling postmodernity?” 221 III. “something strange to me, although it is at the very heart of me” 239 Lesson Ten: “One is not born a woman” 247 —on making the world queerer than ever I. My (male feminist) credo 247 II. “The future is kid stuff” 264 In the End: Theory is (not—) Forever 271 Reference Matters 275 Index 289
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