Theory Matters

1. Introduction: The Place of Theory Today
Martin Middeke, Christoph Reinfandt

Part I. Metatheory

2. Comes the Revolution
J. Hillis Miller

3. Literary Theory in Reverse: The Literariness of Theory
Gerold Sedlmayr

4. Misreading Shelley, Misreading Theory: Deconstruction, Media, and Materiality
Christian Huck

5. ‘I am, yet what I am’: Theory, Being, and Dis-appearance
Julian Wolfreys

6. Matter Against Materialism: Bruno Latour and the Turn to Objects
Benjamin Noys

7. Avoiding Poststructuralism at Its Root: Towards a New Literary Theory
Dino Galetti

8. Interlude I: The Cultures of Reflexivity
Martin Middeke, Christoph Reinfandt

Part II. Cultural Theory

9. The University: A Matter of Theoretical Importance
Thomas Docherty

10. When Theory Is Not Enough: A Material Turn in Gender Studies
Ingrid Hotz-Davies

11. Luhmann in da Contact Zone: Towards a Postcolonial Critique of Sociological Systems Theory
Lars Eckstein, Christoph Reinfandt

12. Passive Voice: Democratic Indifference and the Vibrant Matter of Literature
Dirk Wiemann

13. Managing Complexity: The ‘Literary Turn’ in Organization Studies
Nicola Glaubitz

14. Interlude II: Ideologies of Habitus
Martin Middeke, Christoph Reinfandt

Part III. Critical Theory

15. Ecological Transformations of Critical Theory
Hubert Zapf

16. The Literary Work as Ethical Event
Derek Attridge

17. Ethics and Agency: The Limits and Necessity of Ethical Criticism
Sebastian Domsch

18. The Art of Compearance: Ethics, (Reading) Literature, and the Coming Community
Martin Middeke

19. Narrative Theory at the Limit
Richard Walsh

20. Interlude III: On Interpretation
Martin Middeke, Christoph Reinfandt

Part IV. Textual Theory

21. The Fate of Texts Under Changing Theory
Herbert Grabes

22. Latour and Literature
David J. Alworth

23. Reading Textures
Christoph Reinfandt

24. Plato or Aristotle? Form and Textuality
Sukanta Chaudhuri

25. Coda: Theory Matters
Martin Middeke, Christoph Reinfandt

Keywords: Literature, Literary Theory, Cultural Theory, Aesthetics