Adventures in Theory: A Compact Anthology

by Calvin Thomas (Editor)

The purpose of art, according to the artist Banksy, is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. The purpose of that creative practice called “theory” is to disturb everyone-to perpetually unsettle all our staid assumptions, all our fixed understandings, all our familiar identities. An alternative to the typically large and unwieldy theory anthology, Adventures in Theory offers a manageably short collection of writings that have famously enacted the central purpose of theory.

Adventures in Theory takes readers on a steadily unsettling tour, spanning the most significant thought provocations in the history of theoretical writing from Marx and Nietzsche through Foucault and Derrida to Butler, Zizek, and Edelman. Engagingly lean and enjoyably mean, this is a minimalist anthology with maximal impact.

320 pages, Paperback

Published November 29, 2018

About the author

Calvin Thomas (1854-1919) was an American scholar and professor. [Calvin^Thomas]

Librarian note: There are more authors in this database with this name. For the critical theorist, go to Calvin Thomas.

Reviews

[Keelia]

even though it is an anthology of a bunch of foundational theoretical texts, I think it would be better if it also had some explanatory chapters or appendices (although that gets rid of the 'compact' bit in the title), because trying to wrap your head around Derrida with no explanation for dummies can be a bit challenging

[Matthew Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slayed