• criticism
• theory

Please welcome Michael McGinnis to the Blogora. Michael will be attending will be attending the Cornell School of Criticism and Theory this summer, and he's been kind enough to offer to be the Blogora's correspondent. I'm sure a number of Blogora readers will be interested in the seminar Mike has been assigned: "Conservatism, Religion, History." The seminar will be led by Simon During (Professor of English, Johns Hopkins University).

• Jim Brown's blog
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• language
• theory

Interesting short piece in WIRED this month about the 'war of words' between scientists and creationists over the use of the word 'theory' when referring to evolution. Seems scientists are getting wise to the fact that when creationists slam evolution as just some 'theory' they're able to discredit it as just something scientists 'believe,' not something that is fact. So, scientists are discussing changing their language to call evolution a 'law.' Theory loses. . .again.

• Cynthia's blog
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• rhetoric
• theory
• war

Over on the WPA listserv a debate about military metaphors rages, specifically, calling TA training "boot camp"...calling the indented list symbol a "bullet." In thinking about my summer reading, which will include a lot of theory, in recent years there is much talk about the 'theory wars.' Two things about which Gary Genosko wrote in his book Undisciplined Theory (Sage, 1998): "The metaphor of war, it needs to be noted, never goes away. It is the engine of the discussion of theory's situation, in North America at least....While theory circulates intensely under propitious, though often short-lived, conditions in certain departments, it is afforded faint recognition across the humanities and social sciences. It has been settled in-between, but disciplinarians of all stripes are apt to give it another name, one with post-war connotations and general applicability: interdisciplinarity. Theory hangs in the balance, in the cross-appointments out of which the centre and the programme are cobbled together; in the form of the institute, the between is extra-curricular, something one pursues in the summer, at the end of the term after the 'real' intellectual labour is finished'" (1-2). I object to the military metaphors, too, but I also object to having theory deemed "something one pursues in the summer...after the 'real' intellectual labour is finished." Your thoughts?

• Cynthia's blog
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• psychoanalysis
• technology
• theory

Wikis continue to sprout (for examples, see Conservapedia and Citizendium). Recently, I've been notified of No Subject, a wiki-based encyclopedia of psychoanalysis (thanks to Jillian for the link). This seems like a resource that would be extremely helpful to folks like me who need explanations of concepts like lack or Countertransference. Useful, that is, depending on who's writing it.

But back to wikis sprouting everywhere: The success of Wikipedia seems to have really circumscribed the idea of what a wiki is or what it could be useful for. Wikis don't have to be encyclopedias. They can be lots of things. However, it seems that we've really gotten stuck when it comes to thinking through what wikis can be. Why do we keep creating knowledge dumps/repositories?

This is not to say that all of these encyclopedias are a bad thing. In fact, all of these specialized wikis remind me of how prescient Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition (1979!) was:

“[Computer Technology] could become the ‘dream’ instrument for controlling and regulating the market system…governing exclusively by the performativity principle. In that case, it would inevitably involve the use of terror. But it could also aid groups discussing metaprescriptives by supplying them with the information they usually lack for making knowledgeable decisions. The line to follow for computerization to take the second of these two paths is, in principle, quite simple: give the public free access to the memory and data banks. Language games would then be games of perfect information at any given moment. But they would also be non-zero-sum games, and by virtue of that fact discussion would never risk fixating in a position of minimax equilibrium because it had exhausted its stakes. For the stakes would be knowledge (or information if you will), and the reserve of knowledge – language’s reserve of possible utterances – is inexhaustible. This sketches the outline of a politics that would respect both the desire for justice and the desire for the unknown” (67).

• Jim Brown's blog
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• theory
• zizek

Thomas Rickert's Acts of Enjoyment: Rhetoric, Zizek, and the Return of the Subject from the University of Pittsburgh Press is now available (as of Friday). I've heard great things about this book, and I'm adding it to my summer reading list.

Here's a description from Amazon:

"Why are today's students not realizing their potential as critical thinkers? Although educators have, for two decades, incorporated contemporary cultural studies into the teaching of composition and rhetoric, many students lack the powers of self-expression that are crucial for effecting social change. Acts of Enjoyment presents a critique of current pedagogies and introduces a psychoanalytical approach in teaching composition and rhetoric. Thomas Rickert builds upon the advances of cultural studies and its focus on societal trends and broadens this view by placing attention on the conscious and subconscious thought of the individual. By introducing the cultural theory work of Slavoj Zizek, Rickert seeks to encourage personal and social invention--rather than simply following a course of unity, equity, or consensus that is so prevalent in current writing instruction. He argues that writing should not be treated as a simple skill, as a naïve self expression, or as a tool for personal advancement, but rather as a reflection of social and psychical forces, such as jouissance (enjoyment/sensual pleasure), desire, and fantasy-creating a more sophisticated, panoptic form. The goal of the psychoanalytical approach is to highlight the best pedagogical aspects of cultural studies to allow for well-rounded individual expression, ultimately providing the tools necessary to address larger issues of politics, popular culture, ideology, and social transformation."

• Jim Brown's blog
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• theory
• visual rhetoric

Viz., the new visual rhetoric blog from the CWRL, has a new piece on "ekphrasis" that offers a nice gloss of the term and some further readings for those looking to get a bit deeper.

• Jim Brown's blog
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• political rhetoric
• religion
• sociology
• theory

As a result of our theory discussions in the past few weeks, I have a clearer idea of what is meant by hermeneutic v. anti-hermeneutic strategies of reading in contemporary rhetorical/literary theory. I want to up the ante in the discussion a bit by introducing causal argument into the mix, using research on the persistent religiosity of the U.S. as an example. The stakes, as usual, are answers to the question: "What are we doing when we say we are doing rhetoric?"

Thesis 1: What we call "rhetoric" in its various forms across cultures involves the identification of causal mechanisms related to symbolic inducement. By "causal mechanism" I mean not a "law" but rather an observed regularity in the relationship between a persuasive strategy and its effects, a regularity that may be undermined in the given case by any number of situational factors. "Rhetoric" is thus an "offshoot" of ethical and political studies in that all require a certain habit of mind--"prudence"--for their practice: the ability to size up a situation and craft responses quickly.

• Jim Aune's blog
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• mimesis
• theory

It pains me to pass this on, but Avital just told me that Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe passed last night. What a loss... My favorite book by Lacoue-Labarthe was Typography, but i also loved the work that he and Jean-Luc Nancy did together, particularly the early works on Freud. .............

• ddd's blog
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