Elegy for Theory

D. N. Rodowick

Published by Harvard University Press 2014

Elegy for Theory

D. N. Rodowick

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674726086

Overview
Contents

About this book

Rhetorically charged debates over theory have divided scholars of the humanities for decades. In Elegy for Theory, D. N. Rodowick steps back from well-rehearsed arguments pro and con to assess why theory has become such a deeply contested concept. Far from lobbying for a return to the "high theory" of the 1970s and 1980s, he calls for a vigorous dialogue on what should constitute a new, ethically inflected philosophy of the humanities. Rodowick develops an ambitiously cross-disciplinary critique of theory as an academic discourse, tracing its historical displacements from ancient concepts of theoria through late modern concepts of the aesthetic and into the twentieth century. The genealogy of theory, he argues, is constituted by two main lines of descent--one that goes back to philosophy and the other rooted instead in the history of positivism and the rise of the empirical sciences. Giving literature, philosophy, and aesthetics their due, Rodowick asserts that the mid-twentieth-century rise of theory within the academy cannot be understood apart from the emergence of cinema and visual studies. To ask the question, "What is cinema?" is to also open up in new ways the broader question of what is art.

Author / Editor information

Rodowick D. N. :

D. N. Rodowick is Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
In Place of Beginning ... Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
1. A Compass in a Moving World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Many Lines of Descent Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	5
3. Th eoria as Practical Philosophy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
4. The Sage Is Wise Only in Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
5. Variations and Discontinuities: Aesthetic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
6. How Art Found Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
7. Philosophy before the Arts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
8. The Rarity of Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
9. On the History of Film Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
10. Genres of Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
11. Excursus: Ricciotto Canudo and the Aesthetic Discourse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
12. On the Way to Language Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
13. The Travels of Formalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
14. An Uncertain and Irrational Art Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
15. A Small History of Structuralism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
16. After the Long Eclipse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
17. An Object, a Method, a Domain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
18. A Care for the Claims of Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
19. The Sense of an Ending Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
20. “Suddenly, an Age of Theory” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
21. The Fifth Element Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
22. “A Struggle without End, Exterior and Interior” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
23. Becoming a Subject in Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 297
Illustrations
- Other: 1 halftone

eBook

Published: January 6, 2014
ISBN: 9780674726086