Sastra Inggris

THE 12TH LITERARY STUDIES CONFERENCE

Literary and Cultural Criticism in the Age of Post-theory

Questions on the death of Theory emerging at the turn of the 21st century have changed the landscape of literary and cultural criticism. Terry Eagleton (2003) argues that we cannot return to pre-theoretical innocence, although the time for high Theory has passed. Rather than seeing post-theory as a theoretical impasse, Ernesto Laclau (2022) contends it is a post-theoretical terrain where ‘theory’ and ‘empiria’ mutually contaminate each other. Inconclusive as it is, post-theory continues to stimulate literary and cultural critics to redefine Theory and its relation with data.

To explore the implications of post-theory on literary and cultural criticism, this conference invites papers focusing on three directions: critiques of Theory, signified prefix ‘post’ in terms such as post-humanism, post-Marxism, post-structuralism, postcolonialism, postmodernism, and post-feminism; the search for indigenous poetics and epistemologies as a move to decenter Western Theory; and teaching Theory to undergraduate students. Indigenous poetics and epistemologies might include those considered less known or less fully systemized vernacular texts. The objective is to promote diverse literary texts/traditions to include less-known indigenous/vernacular texts in the global repertoire. Teaching Theory to undergrad students, although indispensable, should be able to address difficult questions of how far and in what form undergraduate students can be expected to engage with Theory.