Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 10:29:18 -0500 (CDT) From: Timothy A Dayton <tadayton-AT-ksu.edu> Subject: Re: BHA: Negelect of Bhaskar (Marx?) As to the seemingly inexplicable popularity of Butler et al. among undergraduates and graduate students--or more accurately among their teachers who pass along an enthusiasm for such stuff--I think a part of the answer lies in a comment I remember Jameson making in a class I took with him ten or fifteen years ago. (It might actually have been made by a much less well-known fellow named Rick Roderick, but no matter). He was talking about the split between materialism and idealism as it has been treated within Marxism and paused to mention realism as an alternative (if materialism is understood in a mechanical sense). Then he said that the problem--at least for humanities types--is that realism isn't elegant, and (begin irony) we like our theories elegant (end irony). The Deluze/Butler/other flavor of the week crowd simply have an easier time of it. Much of this no doubt also has to do with the resentment of humanities academics: if we can turn everything into a narrative of some kind or other, then really we are the ones who hold the key to all knowledge. Of course, the salaries are lower (wounded middle-class pride), and no one takes us very seriously (wounded professional pride). Yet we are, along with Shelley's poets, "the unacknowledged legislators of mankind." Yee-haw. Tim Tim Dayton English Department Kansas State University Manhattan, KS 66506-0701 --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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