[1] From: "Malcolm Hayward, English, IUP, Indiana PA (8)
15705"
Subject: Re: 9.167 literary theory
Interesting question, what is theory. I teach both a history of
theory class and a modern theory one in our graduate program.
If the question were, What has theory been? I'd answer, a mode
of containment, the arm of the law handing out speeding tickets,
parking tickets, tickets for driving on the wrong side of the
road. What I'd like it to be is a kind of heuristic (haven't
used that word in a while) for finding out not what texts mean
but what they do--primarily at that border between the individual
and the culture. Malcolm Hayward, Indiana University of Pennsylvania