Lexington Books Reading as Democracy in Crisis: Interpretation, Theory, History

Reading as Democracy in Crisis: Interpretation, Theory, History explores the dialectic between historical conditions and the reading strategies that arise from them. Chapters covering Plato and Derrida; G.W.F. Hegel; Karl Marx; Ludwig Wittgenstein; Robert Penn Warren; Louise Rosenblatt; Theodor Adorno, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida; Judith Butler; and Object Oriented Ontology and Digital Humanities provide overviews of and arguments about each subject's thought in its historical contexts, suggesting how the reading strategies adopted in each case were in part motivated by specific historical circumstances. As the introduction explains, these circumstances often involved forms of democracy in crisis, so that the collection as a whole is an engagement with the dialectic between democracies that are perpetually in crisis and the seemingly unlimited freedom of our reading practices. Review Rovira and his contributors remind us here of reading's rich heritage as an inherently political act of self-definition in service to democracy. A timely and compelling multi-vocal manifesto for our troubled times, and a thought-provoking read throughout.--Stephen C. Behrendt, University Professor and George Holmes Distinguished Professor of English, University of Nebraska The ensuing struggle for democracy requires courageous scholars and writers to speak truth and for publishers to deliver their message to the public. Reading as Democracy in Crisis: Interpretation, Theory, History is an essential tool in democracy's fragile arsenal with which to contest denuded and unsavory forms of thought emerging in our time. Books like this one might just save us from sinking into a new dark age.--Creston Davis, The Global Center for Advanced Studies About the Author James Rovira is owner of Bright Futures Educational Consulting, and founding president of the Anazoa Educational Project. He is former associate professor and English department chair at Mississippi College.