Anecdotal Theory SYNOPSIS
Anecdote" and "theory" have diametrically opposed connotations: humorous
versus serious, specific versus general, trivial versus overarching, short
versus grand. Anecdotal Theory cuts through these oppositions to
produce theory with a sense of humor, theorizing which honors the uncanny detail
of lived experience. Challenging academic business as usual, renowned literary
scholar Jane Gallop argues that all theory is bound up with stories and urges
theorists to pay attention to the "trivial," quotidian narratives that theory
all too often represses.
In this series of essays published during the 1990s, Gallop addresses many of the major questions of feminist theory. Collected here, these essays are united through a common methodological engagement-writing that recounts a personal anecdote and then attempts to read that anecdote for the theoretical insights it affords. The essays regularly revisit not only '70s feminism, but also poststructuralism and the academy. For, as Gallop explains, the practice of anecdotal theory derives from the lineages of psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and feminism. Whether addressing issues of pedagogy, the sexual position one occupies when on the academic job-market, bad-girl feminists, or the notion of sisterhood, these essays exemplify theory connected to the real, theory grappling with its own erotics. They are bold, illuminating, and-dare we say-fun.
About the
Author
Jane Gallop is
Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University
of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She is the author of numerous books including Around
1981: Academic Feminist Literary Theory, Thinking through the Body, and Feminist
Accused of Sexual Harassment, published by Duke University Press.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Jane Gallop's essays are lucid, bold, and timely: she gives us our time through a series of brilliant lenses. I'm always grateful for the intelligence, the edge, and the generosity of her vision. We would all be more lost without her. — Judith Butler
Gallop is our foremost comic theorist. Anecdotal theory, as she observes, is theory with a better sense of humor. Gallop shows us how to be smart and rigorous precisely by refusing to 'get serious,' explaining how that imperative in fact makes literary critics relinquish what we do best. Lightening up without in any way producing theory lite: this is one formulation of Gallop's goal and considerable accomplishment, both here and throughout her career. — Joseph Litvak, author of Strange Gourmets: Theory, Sophistication, and the Novel
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