Reaganism is a discourse of devotion and disqualification, combining a neoliberal negative theology of the market with a neoconservative demonization of opponents. Reagan’s personality cult shelters the aggressivity of a war of all against all by representing the market as a moralistic standard of perfection, a representation of goodness and freedom. In literary theory and criticism, a homologous valuative system centered itself on the canon, representing culture as a study of perfection. Paul de Man argued for the displacement of this positive moralistic reference, but his proposals ultimately replace it with a negative moralistic reference to literariness. De Man’s premises have been perpetuated in subsequent theory by persistent misrecognitions of dialectic as suspicious hermeneutics, of materialism as reference to materiality, and of demands for democratic equity as identity politics. Tracing this motivated reasoning through misreadings of Eve Sedgwick’s critique of conspiracy theory and Edward Said’s “secular criticism,” we are led back to the unexamined premises of Paul de Man’s negative moralism and the opportunistic competition of academic careerism.

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Largely erased from disciplinary memory, Paul de Man's replacement of canon with literariness as the object of literary studies preserved a discourse of devotion and disqualification homologous with Reaganism. This negative moralism shelters professional privilege and competition from scrutiny, supported by misrecognitions like hermeneutic suspicion, materiality, and identity politics.
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Acknowledgments; Essay One Interpretive Politics: Reading Systemic Oppressions with Eve Sedgwick, Stephen Best and Sharon Marcus; 1. Reading the Lines; 2. Paranoid Projects; 3. Defining the Opposition; Essay Two Devotional Scholarship: Reading Academic Reaganism with Edward Said, Stanley Fish and Walter Jackson Bate; 1. Neoliberalism and Religious Intellectualism; 2. Neoconservatism as Negative Devotion; 3. Professional Privilege; Essay Three Negative Moralism: Reading Literariness, Materiality and Revolution with Paul de Man and J. Hillis Miller; 1. The Disqualification of de Man; 2. Reference to Nothingness; 3. Misreading Materialism; Index.

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<p>An enlightening study that explains how negative moralism shelters professional privilege and competition from scrutiny</p>

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781785272783
Publisert
2020-07-15
Utgiver
Vendor
Anthem Press
Vekt
454 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
153 mm
Dybde
26 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
214

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Jeremiah Bowen, PhD is author of Reaganism in Literary Theory: Negative Moralism and Hermeneutic Suspicion and the book-length poems Consolations, and Argument on the Internet, volumes 1 and 2.