A reading of Theory when and where it arises in the event of reading and how Theory might best be handled in the context of higher education today. 'A splendid set of studies from a consummate critical theorist. Leading us into theoretical discourse with disparate threads, John Mowitt offers here a singular textual labyrinth, woven in the exemplary spirit of sustained scholarly engagement and enjoyment.' — Rey Chow, Duke University 'Thanks to countless conversations that he animates vividly, John Mowitt demonstrates with rigour and intelligence that Theory is here and now, not as a series of concepts to be applied, but as a way of reading life and texts, thus offering an indispensable propaedeutic for our critical humanities.' — Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania and Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 'Separating theory and practice has done higher education in the human sciences considerable harm. John Mowitt is among the very few who have been working on a productive and persistent undoing of this polarization. We now have a chance to learn from this sustained work in Offering Theory.' — Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Author of An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization