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By eliminating theory from the academy, the valiant warriors of antitheory believe that they are saving it from appreciative peril. This Is Not the End of Theory presents a host of arguments against this claim. It demonstrates that the elimination of theory from the academy has quite the opposite effect. Namely, it foreshadows the death of the academy.
This is not the end of theory because our ability to think, interpret, and judge critically depends on it—and a world without theory is one where critical thinking, interpretation, and judgment will soon vanish in the darkness. This Is Not the End of Theory is a warning to all who value critical theory, humanities, and pedagogy to be wary of new directions in antitheory regardless of their source—and to do everything they can to avoid them taking root.
“Renowned writer and critic Jeffrey R. Di Leo mucks out the Augean stables and explains the post-critical debris. With his philosopher’s edge, he cuts through global babble and delivers the best defense of humanism since Edward Said’s Humanism and Democratic Criticism.” —H. Aram Veeser, Professor of English, The City College of New York and Faculty, CUNY Graduate Center, USA.
“This Is Not the End of Theory arrives at a critical moment for the humanities, beset by institutional pressures, political hostility, and the cascading demands of multiple intersecting crises, to make an urgent and uncompromising case for the continued necessity of theory. Ranging across disciplines, objects, and methods of inquiry, its essays reveal a field not in decline but in transformation, alive to new questions and possibilities. Philosophically serious and politically alert, this is an essential defense of critique, academic freedom, and the enduring stakes of thought itself.” —Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, Kyung Hee University, South Korea.
“This Is Not the End of Theory is a rich, accessible, and intellectually compelling contribution to the humanities. A rallying cry for theorists committed to the university as a critical space, it powerfully defends the importance of speaking truth to power in an era shaped by neoliberalism and postliberalism.” —Zahi Zalloua, Whitman College, USA.
"With astonishing breadth and striking lucidity, Jeffery Di Leo ranges over subjects as diverse as the death of the dictionary, writing in the age of ChatGPT, commercial forces in the academy, and academic forces in the marketplace. The mosaic that emerges demonstrates how theory is not only alive and actively shaping the world, but that it matters now more than ever. Anyone concerned about dark days in the humanities will find This Is Not the End of Theory an illuminating and energizing affirmation".—Steve Tomasula, University of Notre Dame, USA.
"Jeffrey R. Di Leo’s continued advocacy for the work of theory is unique in its practical focus on vitality as well as virtue as grounds for the legitimacy of the humanities. With great clarity and persuasiveness, the author’s invigorating call for “the pursuit of democratic values and critical citizenship” comes across as constitutive of intellectual labor and a thriving, just society."—Xavier Kalck, Professor of North American Literature at the University of Lille, France.
"This Is Not the End of Theory demonstrates why humanities education is so crucial to an intelligent citizenry. The author presents antitheory perspectives with clarity, balance, and intellectual rigor, while revealing the theoretical assumptions that underlie even antitheory positions".—Daniel T. O’Hara, Temple University, USA.
Jeffrey R. Di Leo is Distinguished Professor of English and Philosophy. He is the founder and editor of symplokē, editor-in-chief of American Book Review, and Executive Director of the Society for Critical Exchange and its Winter Theory Institute.
Preface; Acknowledgments; 1 - Valuing the Humanities; 2 - The Trouble with Experts; 3 - The Paradox of Postliberal Humanism; 4 - Commerce with Montaigne; 5 - Just Academe; 6 - Fight the Power; 7 - Jackie Robinson Comes to Iowa; 8 - Worlding Literature; 9 - Ending World, Ending Philosophy; 10 - The Infrastructure of Death; 11 - Living After Extinction; 12 - Every Dog Has His Day; 13 - The Question of Jargon; 14 - Closely Read Terms; 15 - The Other Alterity; 16 - The Fate of Semiotics; 17 - The Perpetual Impossibility of Theory; 18 - The Thirty-Five-Million-Dollar Book; 19 - The Last Dictionary; 20 - Who’s Afraid of ChatGPT?; 21 - Out of Supply, Indefinitely; 22 - How to Listen to Philosophy; 23 - A School of One’s Own; 24 - On the Parasitic University; Notes; Index