Is there life after theory? If the death of the Author has now been followed by the death of the Theorist, what's left? Indeed, who's left? To explore such riddles, "Life.After.Theory" brings together new interviews with four theorists who are left, each a major figure in their own right: Jacques Derrida, Frank Kermode, Toril Moi and Christopher Norris. Framed and introduced by Michael Payne and John Schad, the interviews pursue a whole range of topics, both familiar and unfamiliar. Among other things, Derrida, Kermode, Moi and Norris discuss being an outsider, taking responsibility, valuing books, getting angry, doing science, listening to music, remembering Empson, re-reading de Beauvoir, being Jewish, asking forgiveness, smoking in libraries, befriending the dead, committing bigamy, forgetting to forget, thinking, not thinking, believing, and being mad. These four key thinkers explore why there is life after theory, but not as we know it.
Author Biography
Michael Payne is John P. Crozer Professor of English at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. His recent publications include A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory and Reading Knowledge: An Introduction to Barthes, Foucault, and Althusser. John Schad is Reader in Victorian Studies at Loughborough University. He is the author of, amongst other works, Victorians in Theory: from Browning to Derrida, and Queer Fish: Christian Unreason from Darwin to Joyce.