As a part of Special Lecture Series, Dept. of English, Vikrama Simhapuri University, Nellore has organized on “Aesthetics, Theory and Post - Theory” on 06th April, 2022.  Mr. B. S. S. Bhagavan, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Vikrama Simhapuri University College, Nellore was the Distinguished Speaker of the day. 

 In the Lecture, the Speaker defined Post – Theory, is defined as an amalgamation of “the post-structuralist proposition about the slipperiness of language and the instability of meaning that began to be imported from France in the 1960’s” and “any of the ‘isms’ and schools of thought that have shaped literary interpretation in the last 30 years. Marxism, feminism, psychoanalysis, the critical theory of Germany’s Frankfurt school”, in sum, “a way of doing criticism that at times seems to merge into philosophy”. After citing several recent publications since the mid-1980s that called theory into question, highlighted by the landmark volume Against Theory: Literary Studies and the New Pragmatism, edited by the renowned University of Chicago scholar W. T. Mitchell, and quoting several prominent scholars whom she had interviewed, including Stephen Greenblatt, Catherine Stimson, Judith Butler, and Jonathan Culler, the speaker concludes that although it was still impossible to ascertain precisely in which direction literary studies were veering, it appeared certain that they were moving away from the linguistic turn that had informed the age of high theory towards a more eclectic period. This new eclecticism displayed, rather, a turn towards history including an increasing emphasis on postcolonialism, gender, ethnicity, and “culture” broadly conceived.

The speaker started the Lecture assessing the eclectic trends in literary theory and criticism in the posttheory age with a focus on three rubrics: the cultural turn, the historic turn, and the affective turn and concluded with a consideration of the current debate about symptomatic reading versus surface reading.

In the inaugural session, Prof. G. M. Sundaravalli, Honorable Vice-Chancellor, Vikrama Simhapuri University, and Dr. L.V. Krishna Reddy, Registrar, Vikrama Simhapuri University, Nellore addressed the gathering. The Faculty and Students of the University actively participated in the programme.