Beyond Deconstruction: The Uses And Abuses Of Literary Theory

Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good

At the crossroads of critical thought and literary interpretation, Howard Felperin's Beyond Deconstruction: The Uses and Abuses of Literary Theory presents a rigorous and timely interrogation of the deconstructionist movement that swept through academia in the latter half of the twentieth century. Felperin chronicles the rise of post-structuralist literary theory — from its Derridean origins to its widespread institutional adoption — and argues with incisive clarity that the movement, for all its intellectual ambition, carries within it the seeds of its own theoretical contradictions. The work situates itself within the broader critical debates of its era, engaging directly with the ideas of Derrida, de Man, and their contemporaries, while mapping the boundaries between productive critical inquiry and self-defeating theoretical excess. Felperin writes with the authority of a scholar equally versed in Renaissance literature and contemporary critical philosophy, and his prose strikes a precise balance between academic rigour and intellectual accessibility. Beyond Deconstruction does not merely critique; it illuminates the underlying tensions between hermeneutics and deconstruction, between meaning and its perpetual deferral, ultimately asking what it means to read at all. Published by the prestigious Clarendon Press, Oxford, this work stands as a landmark contribution to literary theory, leaving the reader to question whether any critical methodology can ever truly transcend its own assumptions.