After Theory

by Docherty, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780748608409
• ISBN10: 0748608400
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-12-31
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Summary

This book proposes the necessity of a new critical attitude appropriate to a post-enlightenment social and political condition. Theory - the intellectual and his or her knowledge - has been institutionalised and tamed; the critic interested in praxis must find a new means of establishing an effective intellection. After Theoryargues the demand for a post-theoretical or ana-theoretical attitude which will recondition and regenerate critique under the aegis of a philosophical and austere postmarxism. The 'waking' of theory advanced here ranges eclectically over twentieth-century practice in philosophy, literature, painting, music, dance, architecture, film and photography, breaking theory from its institutionalised bonds.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Introduction	1	(7)
Postmodernity and History	8	(5)
After Theory	13	(4)
Part 1 Getting Going	17	(26)
Chapter 1 Postmodernism	17	(26)
1.1 Seduction	20	(8)
1.2 Transgression	28	(4)
1.3 Aurality	32	(4)
1.4 Flight	36	(3)
Postscript	39	(4)
Part 2 Excess and Extravagance	43	(72)
Chapter 2 Theory, Enlightenment, Violence	43	(31)
2.1 Postmodern Hermeneutic as a Comedy of Errors	43	(3)
2.2 Heliotropism: The Linguistic Turn in the Language of Flowers	46	(13)
2.3 Against Against Theory: Pragmatists Playing Patience	59	(9)
2.4 For a Chrono-political Theory of Interpretation	68	(6)
Chapter 3 Photography as Postmodern Cartography	74	(41)
3.1 Producing the Ghostly: The Negation of Positivism	75	(18)
3.2 Black Mythology	93	(8)
3.3 `Make Maps, Not Photographs...'?	101	(14)
Part 3 Clews and Webs	115	(56)
Chapter 4 Representing Postmodernism	115	(27)
4.1 `Beware of the Dog!': The Historicity of Representation	117	(25)
Chapter 5 Postmodern (Dis)Simulation: Tauromachia and the Struggle for Europe	142	(29)
5.1 Introductory: For a Historical Consciousness	142	(5)
5.2 Poetry as Anachronism	147	(24)
Part 4 Aural Labyrinth	171	(72)
Chapter 6 Listening: Poisons in the Ear	171	(33)
6.1 Dancing in the Labyrinth: Enchantment and Amazement	171	(6)
6.2 Inviolable Voice	177	(27)
Chapter 7 Deterritorialisation: Ending Culture	204	(22)
Chapter 8 `List, list, O list...'	226	(17)
Part 5 Conclusion: Going On	243	(19)
Chapter 9 Postmarxism	243	(2)
9.1 After Theory	245	(8)
9.2 Seduction and Irresponsibility	253	(9)
Notes	262	(29)
Index	291