Bloomsbury Theory in the "Post" Era: A Vocabulary for the 21st-Century Conceptual Commons

Theory in the "Post" Era brings together the work and perspectives of a group of Romanian theorists who discuss the morphings of contemporary theory in what the editors call the “post” era. Since the Cold War's end and especially in the third millennium, theorists have been exploring the aftermath - and sometimes just the “after” - of whole paradigms, the crisis or “passing” of anthropocentrism, the twilight of an entire ontological and cultural “condition,” as well as the corresponding rise of an antagonist model, of an “anti,” “meta,” or “neo” alternative, with examples ranging from “posthumanism” and “post-postmodernism” to “post-aesthetics,” “postanalog” interpretation or “digicriticism,” “post-presentism,” “post-memory,” “post-“ or “neo-critique,” and so forth. It is no coincidence, the contributors to this volume argue, that this “post” moment is also a time when theory is practiced as a world genre. If theory has always been a “worlded” enterprise, a quintessentially communal, cross-cultural and international project, this is truer at present than ever. Perhaps more than other humanist constituencies, today's theorists work and belong in a theory commons that is transnational if still uneven economically, politically, and otherwise. Theory in the "Post" Era reports the results of Romanian theory experiments that join efforts made in other places to foster a theory for the “post” age. Review "Just as there is 'World Literature, ' this book urges us to consider 'World Theory.' While we often tout the globalism of theory, its history typically focuses on Western Europe and the US. Reminding us that the story of theory is a travel narrative, this collection features work arising from Romania's Critical Theory Institute, whose members have been investigating the various possibilities of theory in the new millennium. One way to think of theory is as the genre that allows us to speak critically across various national, disciplinary, and temporal borders, and Theory in the 'Post' Era works to create a contemporary intellectual commons." -- Jeffrey Williams, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, Carnegie Mellon University, USA, and co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism Even readers annoyed by the proliferation of constructions in “post-“ will discover much to engage and provoke in this lively collection by a group of Romanian scholars. Writing from the periphery of Europe yet well-versed in contemporary Western critical thought, they offer original, estranging perspectives on issues of the moment, whether proposing an Easthetics, a Constructuralism, or literary criticism as diplomacy. Jonathan Culler, Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, Cornell University, USA This group of inspired Romanian 'post' theorists decisively shows two things. First, theory is no thing. You cannot be for or against it. It is rather the ubiquitous fabric of our global conversation on politics, culture, science, and art. Second, theory is no longer (and never really was) an elite discourse promulgated in Paris, New York, New Haven, and Irvine. It is a radically decentered interrogation that is elaborated in both Cluj and Greensborough, in Walla Walla and Taipei. It is alive and well and living on the periphery! Paul Allen Miller, Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina, USA Boldly recasting theory as World Theory, this timely volume makes a compelling case for 'theory commons,' for what we as theorists translate and share as an open-ended, transnational community, a community―needed by theory and in need of theory―invested in thinking inventively and comparatively the plethora of “posts” endemic to our infinitely interconnected planetary condition. -- Zahi Zalloua, Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature, Whitman College, USA ‘Romania,’ amid the planetary turbulence of 2021, is every bit as a propos as the mor