What’s Wrong with Antitheory?

Antitheory has long been a venerable brand of theory and – although seemingly opposite – the two impulses have long been intertwined. Antitheory is the first book to explore this vexed relationship from the 20th century to the present day, examining antitheory both in its historical context and its current state. The book brings together leading scholars from a wide range of Humanities disciplines to ask such questions as:

· What is antitheory?
· What does it mean to be against theory in the new millennium?
· What is the current state of post-theory, the alleged deaths of theory, and the critique of critique?

“What's Wrong with Antitheory? is a most acute, thoughtful, and, by the way, highly theoretical impact report on contemporary critical theory's multifaceted contributions over the past half century. More than anything else, "antitheory" is to be understood in the sense of "antimatter." It is far less a dismissal or resistance to theoretical speculation than the environmental surround upon which the imprint of critical theory has registered. The volume bespeaks a hunger on the part of a diverse critical subculture to address some of the tangible, often unattended socio-political and economic preconditions for theoretical deliberation; also, many of the unintended repercussions of what started as rigorously open-ended, unbound critical inquiry. What's Wrong with Antitheory? encompasses a broad and wonderfully diverse range of interventions registering the "antitheoretical" phenomenon. The volume renders particular service to younger readers addressing the daunting task of placing their own work within the current map of cultural exegesis at a moment of seismic shift in global communications and administrative orders.”

In the introduction to this collection, Di Leo (English and philosophy, Univ. of Houston, Victoria) addresses the issues of theory in the 21st century. Most of the contributors of the 14 essays are drawn from the humanities, notably literature and philosophy. The essays approach theory through the perspective of "antitheory,” which began as a resistance to theory but inevitably broadened its reach. Di Leo organizes the collection in three sections: “Antitheory as Theory" (five essays), “Reading as Antitheory" (five essays), and "Philosophy, Theory, and Antitheory" (four essays). The collection is timely, as university structures succumb to neoliberal pressures to commodify the humanities. Over the past 50 years or so theory has been denigrated as the death knell for the humanities; the implicit argument of the present collection is that theory is a way to save the humanities. Addressing the contemporary state of the humanities from both historical and conceptual viewpoints, What’s Wrong with Antitheory opens a necessary discussion. Summing Up: Recommended. CHOICE

Reviews
Now that Theory is a New York based international fashion brand and that even the zealots of anti-theory have run out of steam, we need to assess what the theory wars have given birth to: dangerous presents announcing an uncertain future. In order to prevent a general sell-out, clear-sighted judgments are required, such as these provided with rigor and verve by the authors gathered in What’s Wrong with Anti-Theory. The survival of philosophical approaches to the text, despite dire predictions and the accelerations of the fashion industry, leaves us with a serious task, and it begins here.

-- Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

What’s Wrong with Antitheory? is a most acute, thoughtful, and, by the way, highly theoretical impact report on contemporary critical theory’s multifaceted contributions over the past half century. More than anything else, “antitheory” is to be understood in the sense of “antimatter.” It is far less a dismissal or resistance to theoretical speculation than the environmental surround upon which the imprint of critical theory has registered. The volume bespeaks a hunger on the part of a diverse critical subculture to address some of the tangible, often unattended socio-political and economic preconditions for theoretical deliberation; also, many of the unintended repercussions of what started as rigorously open-ended, unbound critical inquiry. What’s Wrong with Antitheory? encompasses a broad and wonderfully diverse range of interventions registering the “antitheoretical” phenomenon.
The volume renders particular service to younger readers addressing the daunting task of placing their own work within the current map of cultural exegesis at a moment of seismic shift in global communications and administrative orders.

-- Professor Henry Sussman, Department of German, Russian, and E. European Languages and Literatures, Rutgers University
Antitheory capitalizes on the decline of higher education, celebrates the impoverishment of thinking, relishes solipsism, criticizes in bad faith, and—get this—has the audacity to call itself Theory! This superb volume of essays explores these and other troubling features of antitheory—above all showing why antitheory is wrong six ways from Sunday. Composed by expert readers in Theory well versed in current debates, every chapter forcefully demonstrates that the fate of the humanities in these stupid times depends on the vitality of Theory in its most critical and revolutionary form. Andrew Cole, Professor of English, Princeton University

Jeffrey R. Di Leo is Professor of English and Philosophy and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Houston-Victoria, USA. He is editor of the American Book Review, founding editor of the journal symploke, and executive director of the Society for Critical Exchange and its Winter Theory Institute.His previous publications include Dead Theory: Derrida, Death, and the Afterlife of Theory (2016), American Literature as World Literature (2017), and The Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary and Cultural Theory (2019).

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