Postmodernism and Beyond: The Rise and Fall of Theory - LIR 609

Postmodernism has been hailed as one of the most significant transformations in the interpretative history of humanity. A body of principles and practices, known as “Theory,” has stormed academia since the last quarter of the twentieth century. The most notable theoreticians of this peculiar interest have been centered mainly in Europe but also in the United States of America. Yet, at the beginning of the third millennium, voices have been raised against what is perceived as the hegemony of theory, and attempts are being made, on the one hand, to break the dictatorship of postmodernist thought and, on the other hand, to delineate the features of the new age. Theorists include J. Hillis Miller, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Umberto Eco, and others.