The Theory Mess: Deconstruction in Eclipse

by Herman Rapaport

Overview

Although deconstruction has become a popular catchword, as an intellectual movement it has never entirely caught on within the university. For some in the academy, deconstruction, and Jacques Derrida in particular, are responsible for the demise of accountability in the study of literature.

Countering these facile dismissals of Derrida and deconstruction, Herman Rapaport explores the incoherence that has plagued critical theory since the 1960s and the resulting legitimacy crisis in the humanities. Against the backdrop of a rich, informed discussion of Derrida's writings—and how they have been misconstrued by critics and admirers alike—The Theory Mess investigates the vicissitudes of Anglo-American criticism over the past thirty years and proposes some possibilities for reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231121354
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	01/10/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.97(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Herman Rapaport is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Southampton. His books include Is There Truth in Art? and Between the Sign and the Gaze.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Beginnings
Co-opting Deconstruction
Theory as Postphilosophy: Rosi Braidotti, Geoffrey Hartman, Annette Kolodny
The Misconstruction of Deconstruction: Gerald Graff and Frank Lentricchia
Demonizing Deconstruction: Walter Jackson Bate, René Wellek, and David Lehman
America is Deconstruction?
Non-Placet
A World Apart: Derrida and the Frankfurt School
1980—1987: A World of Difference
Deconstructing Otherwise: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
British Developments: The Influence of ÆMDULØScreenÆMDNMØ
Eclipsing Deconstruction: History of Subject-Positions I
Eclipsing Deconstruction: History of Subject-Positions II
Lurching to the Right
Social Acts and Excitable Speech
Vicious Dualisms
Deconstruction of the Social Relation I: Heidegger and Sex
Deconstruction of the Social Relation II: Derrida's Itineraries
Derrida and the Political
Reconceiving the Theory Mess
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Tom Conley

Rapaport shows us that in the North American academy we are squatting in confused and messy quarters, and that it is time to reconsider Derrida outside of the shibboleths, defensive posturing, hate speech, and smear campaigns that have been disastrous for critical exchange.

— Tom Conley, professor of Romance languages, Harvard University

Editorial Reviews

Rapaport (U. of Southhampton) provides an account of the general reception of Jacques Derrida's work in Anglo-American academies, finding in it insight into what has been happening in critical theory there over the past three decades. He argues that the euphoria in the late 1970s that a new theoretical episteme had arrived to flush away the entrenched Englightenment humanism had by the late 1980s soured to cynicism about an overproliferation of theoretical models that come and go. Indeed his very index suggests that there are no longer subjects, only names. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

An extensive and careful evaluation, through which Rapaport performs an inestimable service.

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