Policing Literary Theory: Toward a Ethics of Research?
Résumé
In this paper “policing literary theory” will be understood in several ways, but in two ways in particular. First, during the apex of its reign (and even now in its contemporary legacies), French Theory served as a literary theory that policed academic scholarship. I will underscore the historical and political implications of this violence, referring mainly to recent critical French studies devoted to this history (Compagnon 2004 [1998], Kaufmann 2011, Schaeffer 2011). According to my hypothesis, the violence of French Theory was part of its appeal, but this also contributed to its decline and fall. Second, I will argue that the non-state centered “policing” of this hegemonic trend was replaced by institutional censorship, largely supported by supra-national research policy. An extremely powerful tool for policing academic life has emerged over the past few decades in the form of control procedures, accountability, research norms, language requirements, and so forth. On the whole, this set of circumstances is not favorable for the development of literary theory. However, I will suggest that literary studies, following the example of narratology and in association with comparative literary theory, may well be in a position not only to confront this situation but also to open up avenues toward innovative research.