Ten Lessons in Theory: A New Introduction to Theoretical Writing

by Calvin Thomas

Overview

A thoroughly updated edition of the witty and engaging exploration of the history, application, and tenets of literary theory.

The first edition of Ten Lessons served as a “literary” introduction to theoretical writing, a strong set of pedagogical prose poems unpacking Lacanian psychoanalysis, continental philosophy, Marxism, cultural studies, feminism, gender studies, and queer theory. Here Calvin Thomas returns to these ten “lessons,” each based on an axiomatic sentence selected from the canons of theory, each exploring the basic assumptions and motivations of theoretical writing. But while every lesson explains the working terms and core tenets of theory, each also attempts to exemplify theory as a “liberatory practice” (bell hooks), to liberate theory as a “practice of creativity” (Foucault) in and of itself.

The revised, updated, and expanded second edition, featuring 25% new material, still argues for theoretical writing as a genre of creative writing, a way of engaging in the art of the sentence, the art of making sentences that make trouble, that desire to make radical changes in very fabrication of social reality.

Features:
- Critical keywords bolded for easy reference
- Expanded footnotes with detailed discussion of key concepts
- Anti-racist overhaul of each lesson in the wake of Trumpism, Black Lives Matter, and #MeToo
- Urgent emphasis on Afropessimism, critical race theory, and other developments in postcolonial Black cultural production
- Designed to cross-reference with:
Adventures in Theory: A Compact Anthology, edited by Calvin Thomas
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary and Cultural Theory, edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo
The Bloomsbury Handbook to 21st Century Feminist Theory, edited by Robin Truth Goodman

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501383946
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/21/2023
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.45(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Calvin Thomas is Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies in English at Georgia State University in Atlanta, USA. He is the author of Masculinity, Psychoanalysis, Straight Queer Theory: Essays on Abjection in Literature, Mass Culture, and Film (Palgrave Macmillan 2008) and Male Matters: Masculinity, Anxiety, and the Male Body on the Line (University of Illinois Press, 1996). He is the editor of Straight with a Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of Heterosexuality (University of Illinois Press, 2000).

Table of Contents

Prologue to the Second Edition: Bad Timing, Good Trouble
Preface to the Second Edition: "Something (still) worth reading": Theory and/as the Art of the Sentence
Introductory Matters: What Theory Does, Why Theory Lives
Part 1. Antiphysis: Five Lessons in Textual Anthropogenesis
Lesson One: "The world must be made to mean"-or, in(tro)ducing the subject of human reality
Lesson Two: "Meaning is the polite word for pleasure"-or, how the beast in the nursery learns to read
Lesson Three: "Language is by nature fictional"-or, why the word for moonlight can't be moonlight
Lesson Four: "Desire must be taken literally"-a few words on death, sex, and interpretation
Lesson Five: "You are not yourself"-or, I (think, therefore I) is an other
Part 2. Extimacy: Five Lessons in the Utter Alterity of Absolute Proximity
Lesson Six: "This restlessness is us"-or, the least that can be said about Hegel
Lesson Seven: "There is no document of civilization that is not at the same time a document of barbarism"-or, the fates of literary formalism
Lesson Eight: "The unconscious is structured like a language"-or, invasions of the signifier
Lesson Nine: "There is nothing outside the text"-or, fear of the proliferation of meaning
Lesson Ten: "One is not born a woman"-on making the world queerer than ever
Reference Matters
Index

Editorial Reviews

Calvin Thomas compellingly reminds us why theory matters. Rather than being esoteric and far removed from reality, it is the stuff of the everyday. Who we are, how we speak, what we say, and how we act are all dimensions of theory. Ten Lessons in Theory shakes up the world as we know it, and tells us why, as a popular cartoon suggests, being a theorist might be more dangerous than being a terrorist.” —Madhavi Menon, Professor of English, Ashoka University, India, and author of Infinite Variety: A History of Desire in India (2018)

“I know of nothing else like it on the market. There is no better single-volume textbook for introducing, explaining, and engaging thoughtfully (and literarily) with conceptual ideas and the power of language to change the world. Period.” —Kristen L. Over, Associate Professor of English and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Northeastern Illinois University, USA

“Calvin Thomas pulls no punches in this round two of Ten Lessons in Theory. Looking for 'good trouble,' Thomas goes to the mat for critical theory against its antagonists and the fearmongering, book banning, race-baiting, homophobic, anti-woman, trans-hating demagogues who will hate this book. Is literary theory political? You bet it is. But from Thomas' deft pen, theory soars invitingly. Students looking for a guide to the most exciting and challenging intellectual journey are sure to love this book.” —Michael Drexler, Professor of English, Bucknell University, USA., and author of The Traumatic Colonel: the Founding Fathers, Slavery, and the Phantasmatic Aaron Burr (with Ed White, 2014)

“One of the key premises in this expanded edition of Ten Lessons in Theory is that theory is fundamentally literature; it is a genre of creative writing. To that end, Thomas' book is truly sui generis as an introduction to critical theory that performs the intellectual miracle of being both erudite and entertaining. Ten Lessons is virtuosic in its scope and reach as it tracks early theoretical developments in continental philosophy to present day critical theories of race, gender, and identity while somehow, against all odds, never feeling overwhelming or pedantic. Ten Lessons reaffirms and revitalizes the importance of critical theory as a necessary toolkit to help make meaning of our often disorienting social and political present.” —Kevin Wynter, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, Pomona College, USA, and author of Critical Race Theory and Jordan Peele's Get Out (Bloomsbury, 2022)

“Ten Lessons in Theory: An Introduction to Theoretical Writing is an excellent, thoughtful, and sophisticated introduction to the use of theory in critical work. Calvin Thomas encourages readers to have a better understanding of foundational theoretical texts on a fundamental level … This introduction is nuanced and holds something for everyone.” —Literary Research and British Postmodernism [on the 1st edition]

“Thomas's advocacy is a spirited rhetorical performance, made more valiant when considered in the context of our distinctly post-theory climate. ... In lesser hands, this ambitious exercise might have easily ended up in a dizzying theoretical tour, rushed and routine, but Thomas develops an admirably tight narrative, marshaling vast multiplicities of often competing theories into an elegant labyrinthine argument, all the while offering sharp and fresh accounts of the different positions in question. The book would make for a perfect introduction to readers new to Theory.” —Recherche littéraire/Literary Research [on the 1st edition]

“[A] wide-ranging, incisive and sometimes polemical tour through contemporary literary theory ... Any student or teacher of theory who has trouble giving a sympathetic audience to psychoanalytic concepts and approaches would benefit from the first half of Thomas's book. Thomas has a gift for not only making Lacanian psychoanalysis clear, but also for making these concepts seem virtually self-evident. ... Ten Lessons in Theory should be read widely. Thomas makes a passionate, compelling case for the work of theory, for the political purchase of a certain way of thinking and writing theoretically. He also does an exceptional job of making surprising connections across theoretical approaches and ideas. For the student who does not understand why virtually impenetrable texts are being assigned with such frequency, or why they are considered a necessary part of one's education, Thomas's book will not only help clear the conceptual ground, but will also give the student some sense of why grappling with complexity a density is worthwhile in the first place.” —Chiasma [on the 1st edition]

“This beautifully written and imaginatively conceived introduction to critical theory is effectively structured around the 'ten lessons' of the title. It offers something genuinely new by focussing in detail on the legacies of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, whose insights, while foundational to much critical theory, are all too often passed over in cursory fashion in other guides.” —Lisa Downing, Professor of French Discourses of Sexuality, University of Birmingham, UK, and author of The Cambridge Introduction to Foucault [on the 1st edition]

“Ten Lessons in Theory will make you fall in love with theory. And if you already are, it will make you congratulate yourself for having such a splendid beloved. No ordinary introduction to theory, Calvin Thomas's treatise is a dazzling, articulate, impassioned, and wholly convincing argument for why theory matters and should continue to matter. Through a close explication of some of theory's most famous statements, Thomas brings theoretical reasoning to life in ways that keep the reader-even the expert reader-riveted. Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud get the special attention they deserve, and Lacan animates the text the way only Lacan-when well explained-can. The next time a student complains about the 'uselessness' or 'difficulty' of theory, I'll hand them Ten Lessons in Theory.” —Mari Ruti, Professor of Critical Theory, University of Toronto, Canada, and author of The Singularity of Being: Lacan and the Immortal Within [on the 1st edition]

“Gorgeously written and compellingly argued, Calvin Thomas's Ten Lessons in Theory provides students of all levels with a sparklingly insightful initiation into the full intellectual sweep of what is known as 'theory' in today's humanities. But, in addition to this, Thomas offers even the most seasoned scholars a plethora of creative new perspectives on the past two centuries running from post-Kantian German idealism to the aftermath of 'postmodernism.' Ten Lessons in Theory accomplishes nothing less than a radical reconfiguration of our contemporary theoretical conjuncture through its Lacan-inspired reactivation of the more-relevant-than-ever legacies of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. Everyone from undergraduates to full professors to curious lay readers has a great deal to learn from Thomas. One cannot find a surer, clearer, and more enlightening guide to this tricky intellectual terrain anywhere.” —Adrian Johnston, Professor of Philosphy, University of New Mexico, USA, and author of Žižek's Ontology: A Transcendental Materialist Theory of Subjectivity [on the 1st edition]

From the Publisher