Literary Studies Conference

Conference Focus

Questions on the death of Theory emerging at the turn the century has 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. Ernesto Laclau (2022) suggests this marks a post-theoretical terrain where ‘theory’ and ‘empiria’ mutually contaminate each other. Inconclusively yet productively, post-theory continues to stimulate literary and cultural critics to redefine Theory and its role in interpreting cultural symptoms.

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, etc.