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The Future of Theory

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In this controversial manifesto, Jean-Michel Rabaté addresses current anxieties about the future of literary and cultural theory and proposes that it still has a crucial role to play.

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

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Jean-Michel Rabaté

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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Profile Image for Lorraine.
396 reviews115 followers
April 23, 2011
I actually found this entertaining enough. We read the intro for our Politics and Aesthetics group, and I read a bit of the first chapter. No time to read more, but it was evident where this was going.

I actually think this is helpful iof you DON'T know anything about the history of theory. I must say it helped a little with updating my Hegel -- I know so little about Hegel. The downside is that the guy has No Thesis. It seems to be more of a historical documentation of the evolution of theory than anything else. You can see he's done his research. So it's actually good if you want to know what X has done with Hegel and how X's student, Y, modified that reading, etc -- so on and so forth. O, and this thing is hysterical while talking about hysteria! Several of my profs found it boring (where's the thesis? was the general reaction) but I found it ok actually. Probably because I'm terribly underinformed. Anyway in summary: a historical documentation of theory -- it should be titled THE HISTORY OF THEORY -- not FUTURE. Rhetoric is entertaining if you're fond of emotional critics and absolute bullshit if you love fairness and nuance :P (in this case it's an either/or not both
Profile Image for Diego Perez.
156 reviews11 followers
June 3, 2021
2,5

O livro tem bons pontos mas a execução é paradoxalmente problemática: ao mesmo tempo em que se perde em alusões que não parecem pertinentes à premissa da sua argumentação - talvez por uma necessidade de mostrar vários ângulos da mesma questão, perdendo a questão de vista no processo - o fato do autor apontar Hegel como a grande responsável pela dispersão da Teoria no século XX não só é confusa como historicamente problemática.
Acredito que, para o que o autor quis alcançar, esse volume deveria ter no mínimo o dobro do tamanho. Muita informação fica perdida ou incompleta num texto que, em umas 10 páginas, uns 20 ou 30 nomes de grandes teóricos são mencionados.
Por fim, apesar do livro ter um título talvez otimista quanto a teoria e o seu papel de questionar os meios comuns das Letras, o trabalho do autor é basicamente uma longa critica a teoria.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews

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