Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan
Book cover

Theory Matters

The Place of Theory in Literary and Cultural Studies Today

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Editors:
  1. Martin Middeke

    1. Department of English and American Studies, Chair of English Literature, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Christoph Reinfandt

    1. Department of English, English Seminar, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (25 chapters)

  1. Critical Theory

    1. Ethics and Agency: The Limits and Necessity of Ethical Criticism

      • Sebastian Domsch
      Pages 233-246

    2. The Art of Compearance: Ethics, (Reading) Literature, and the Coming Community

      • Martin Middeke
      Pages 247-263

    3. Narrative Theory at the Limit

      • Richard Walsh
      Pages 265-279

    4. Interlude III: On Interpretation

      • Martin Middeke, Christoph Reinfandt
      Pages 281-284

  2. Textual Theory

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 285-285
      Download chapter PDF

    2. The Fate of Texts Under Changing Theory

      • Herbert Grabes
      Pages 287-303

    3. Latour and Literature

      • David J. Alworth
      Pages 305-318

    4. Reading Textures

      • Christoph Reinfandt
      Pages 319-334

    5. Plato or Aristotle? Form and Textuality

      • Sukanta Chaudhuri
      Pages 335-347

    6. Coda: Theory Matters

      • Martin Middeke, Christoph Reinfandt
      Pages 349-350

  3. Back Matter

    Pages 351-362
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book demonstrates that theory in literary and cultural studies has moved beyond overarching master theories towards a greater awareness of particularity and contingency – including its own. What is the place of literary and cultural theory after the Age of Theory has ended? 

Grouping its chapters into rubrics of metatheory, cultural theory, critical theory and textual theory, the collection demonstrates that the practice of “doing theory” has neither lost its vitality nor can it be in any way dispensable. Current directions covered include the renewed interest in phenomenology, the increased acknowledgement of the importance of media history for all cultural practices and formations, complexity studies, new narratology, literary ethics, cultural ecology, and an intensified interest in textual as well as cultural matter.

Reviews

   

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of English and American Studies, Chair of English Literature, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    Martin Middeke

  • Department of English, English Seminar, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Christoph Reinfandt

About the editors

Martin Middeke holds the Chair of English Literature at the University of Augsburg, Germany, and is Visiting Professor of English at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He has published widely in the fields of 19th to 21st century drama and fiction and aspects of deconstruction, literary anthropology and ethics. Major book publications include: Biofiction (ed. 1999), Zeit und Roman (ed. 2002), Die Kunst der gelebten Zeit (2004), Literature and Circularity (ed. 2009), The Literature of Melancholia (ed. 2011), Literature and/as Ethics (ed. 2011), and Representations of the Precarious in Contemporary British Drama (ed. 2016). 


Christoph Reinfandt is Chair of English Literature at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He has published widely on the history of the novel, Romanticism, and contemporary literature and culture. His theoretical work tends to be anchored in sociological systems theory. Major book publications include: Der Sinn der fiktionalen Wirklichkeiten (1997), Systems Theory and Literature (ed. 2001), Romantische Kommunikation (2003), The Cultural Validity of Music in Contemporary Fiction (ed. 2006), Englische Romantik (2008), Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+ (ed. 2008), Romanticism Today (ed. 2009), and Voice and Perception in Transcultural Realities: Focus on India (ed. 2013).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Theory Matters

  • Book Subtitle: The Place of Theory in Literary and Cultural Studies Today

  • Editors: Martin Middeke, Christoph Reinfandt

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47428-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-47427-8Published: 22 July 2016

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-69277-4Due: 05 August 2017

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-47428-5Published: 09 July 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 362

  • Topics: Literary Theory, Cultural Theory, Aesthetics

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation