{"product_id":"theorys-autoimmunity-skepticism-literature-and-philosophy-hardback-9780810137790","title":"Theory's Autoimmunity; Skepticism, Literature, and Philosophy (Hardback) 9780810137790","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eTheory's Autoimmunity\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eSkepticism, Literature, and Philosophy\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eZahi Zalloua (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780810137790\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 30 October 2018\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e240 pages\u003cbr\u003e23.1 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.465 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eEngaging scholars from across humanistic fields grappling with the role and value of theory in our times, \u003cem\u003eTheory's Autoimmunity\u003c\/em\u003e argues for reclaiming theory's skepticism as a value. To cultivate theory's skeptical impulses is to embrace what Jacques Derrida has termed autoimmunity: a condition of openness to the outside-openness of the self, the community, democracy, or other ideals-that allows for change.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOpenness to change comes with risks, and the self-protective temptation to immunize oneself or one's community against these risks is strong. Yet without such risks, without openness to otherness, no encounter with the new, with difference, can ever take place. Without autoimmunity, theory becomes stagnant and programmatic, unable to receive and respond to the other or the event, to address, revise, and produce new meanings. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTaking up the challenge of thinking theory as skepticism, with and against philosophy, this study turns to literature as an interlocutor, investigating the ways theory, like the literary works of Montaigne, Baudelaire, Stendhal, Morrison, or Duras, declines to put on the interpretive brakes, to stop reading at a point of understanding. Undoing and remaking itself, theory—those critical interpretive practices that revel in the creation and proliferation of meaning—becomes autoimmune.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Northwestern University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52620047909144,"sku":"9780810137790","price":71.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/theorys-autoimmunity-skepticism-literature-and-philosophy-hardback-9780810137790","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}