"The World is too much with us:" The Character of Literary Studies Today

Literary studies in the new millennium are described as “post-theoretical,” which implies a paradigm shift from the deconstructive linchpin of capital-t Theory, to a more socially, politically and environmentally engaged, future-oriented, and reparative drive in our discipline. There is a change of...

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Main Author: Zekiye Antakyalıoğlu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The English Language and Literature Research Association of Türkiye 2023-04-01
Series:Ideas: Journal of English Literary Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2769885
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author Zekiye Antakyalıoğlu
author_facet Zekiye Antakyalıoğlu
author_sort Zekiye Antakyalıoğlu
collection DOAJ
description Literary studies in the new millennium are described as “post-theoretical,” which implies a paradigm shift from the deconstructive linchpin of capital-t Theory, to a more socially, politically and environmentally engaged, future-oriented, and reparative drive in our discipline. There is a change of attention from the relativist epistemology of poststructuralism to realist ontology in the new fields of study such as posthumanism and new materialism. Post-theory holds two concurrent attitudes toward Theory: acknowledgement and critique. On the one hand, it is indebted to the legacy of Theory and forms discursive practices in relation to it; on the other hand, it is critical of Theory’s antiessentialism or lack of ethos, and reassesses its foundational axioms with contemporary ontological anxieties and motives. Ours is a chaotic century with manifold problems such as terrorism, war, economic crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, climate changes, oil and water crises, Anthropocene, consumerism, migration, digitalisation, and the question of democracy, etc. This sense of emergency, and its representations in literature, eventually, calls for “character” (essential, mental and moral vision, ethos) and genuine critique (evaluation) from the academics in humanities. This paper aims to offer an outline of the network of practices in literary studies as well as their ethical and aesthetic allegiances with this demand for “character” in mind.
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spelling doaj-art-3816638a2f8d4b8ca9b1a4ea87a12c642025-01-05T19:15:01ZengThe English Language and Literature Research Association of TürkiyeIdeas: Journal of English Literary Studies2757-95492023-04-0131117"The World is too much with us:" The Character of Literary Studies TodayZekiye Antakyalıoğlu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6031-834XGaziantep UniversityLiterary studies in the new millennium are described as “post-theoretical,” which implies a paradigm shift from the deconstructive linchpin of capital-t Theory, to a more socially, politically and environmentally engaged, future-oriented, and reparative drive in our discipline. There is a change of attention from the relativist epistemology of poststructuralism to realist ontology in the new fields of study such as posthumanism and new materialism. Post-theory holds two concurrent attitudes toward Theory: acknowledgement and critique. On the one hand, it is indebted to the legacy of Theory and forms discursive practices in relation to it; on the other hand, it is critical of Theory’s antiessentialism or lack of ethos, and reassesses its foundational axioms with contemporary ontological anxieties and motives. Ours is a chaotic century with manifold problems such as terrorism, war, economic crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, climate changes, oil and water crises, Anthropocene, consumerism, migration, digitalisation, and the question of democracy, etc. This sense of emergency, and its representations in literature, eventually, calls for “character” (essential, mental and moral vision, ethos) and genuine critique (evaluation) from the academics in humanities. This paper aims to offer an outline of the network of practices in literary studies as well as their ethical and aesthetic allegiances with this demand for “character” in mind. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2769885post-theoryethicsaestheticscharacterpost-postmodernismliterary studies
spellingShingle Zekiye Antakyalıoğlu
"The World is too much with us:" The Character of Literary Studies Today
Ideas: Journal of English Literary Studies
post-theory
ethics
aesthetics
character
post-postmodernism
literary studies
title "The World is too much with us:" The Character of Literary Studies Today
title_full "The World is too much with us:" The Character of Literary Studies Today
title_fullStr "The World is too much with us:" The Character of Literary Studies Today
title_full_unstemmed "The World is too much with us:" The Character of Literary Studies Today
title_short "The World is too much with us:" The Character of Literary Studies Today
title_sort the world is too much with us the character of literary studies today
topic post-theory
ethics
aesthetics
character
post-postmodernism
literary studies
url https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2769885
work_keys_str_mv AT zekiyeantakyalıoglu theworldistoomuchwithusthecharacterofliterarystudiestoday