Post-Theory and Beyond

Luiz Fernando Valente

doi:10.1590/2596-304x20212342lfv

Abstract

Abstract This article surveys and assesses the eclectic trends in literary theory and criticism in the post-theory age with a focus on three rubrics: the cultural turn, the historic turn, and the affective turn. It concludes with a consideration of the current debate about symptomatic reading versus surface reading.

Highlights

THEORY AND POST THEORY como citar: VALENTE, Luiz Fernando
The signs of a significant transformation of the intellectual agendas of the human sciences are apparent in the appearance of, among other things, the “new historicism” in literary and legal theory, a revived interest in “history in philosophy,” a historically oriented “new institutionalism” and other historical approaches in political science and economics, “ethnohistory” in anthropology, “historical sociology” in sociology, and even a more self-consciously reflexive and historicist methodological discussion in history itself. (McDONALD, 1996, p. 1). This “historic turn,” resulting in a porosity between history and related fields in the human sciences, has had momentous implications: Today the leakage of history out of its professional disciplinary container has allowed the development of new models for its practice at the same time as its old and new practitioners have subjected it to theoretical challenges from critical social theory, literary criticism, and newer interdisciplinary projects life feminist studies and cultural studies
One of the most hotly contested debates over the last couple of decades has been whether literary texts should be read for what they repress or hide, or for what they manifest, that is, between what has been termed “symptomatic reading” and “surface reading.”

Summary

INTRODUCTION

THEORY AND POST THEORY como citar: VALENTE, Luiz Fernando. Post-Theory and Beyond. This “historic turn,” resulting in a porosity between history and related fields in the human sciences, has had momentous implications: Today the leakage of history out of its professional disciplinary container has allowed the development of new models for its practice at the same time as its old and new practitioners have subjected it to theoretical challenges from critical social theory, literary criticism, and newer interdisciplinary projects life feminist studies and cultural studies This does not mean that history is impossible, but it does mean that the term has multiple meanings and that it has been appropriated for many different reasons by the different disciplines. Designed to create partnerships between the reader and the text, these “happy marriage[s] of speaking

See “The Reader in the Work

CONCLUSION