Modernism, Theory, and Responsible Reading A Critical Conversation

Introducing readers to a new theory of ''responsible reading'', this book presents a range of perspectives on the contemporary relationship between modernism and theory. Using an innovative format of essay and response, it promotes conversation among disparate views under a shared commitment to ''responsible reading'' practices.Touching on areas as diverse as the recent surge in post-critique and/or affect studies; longer histories of theory, modernism, and critique; new ways of understanding the interplay between modernism and theory, the book draws out links to emerging concerns such as the Anthropocene, the post-human, and eco-theory. Above all, these essays articulate and model a method of "responsible reading": a practice that reads generously and engages constructively, even where disagreement is inevitable, articulating a mode of ethical reading that is fundamental to ongoing debates about strength and weakness, paranoia and reparation, critique and affect.