Wasser's talk will be concerned with Macherey’s rich and underappreciated 1966 text A Theory of Literary Production, and with what she will argue is its implicit theory of reading. This is a theory of a kind of receptivity that remains embedded in the activities of literary and critical production. In drawing out Macherey’s unstated theory of reading, Wasser will consider the work in the context of Althusser’s Reading Capital project, as well as in relation to key insights of deconstruction, especially those of Paul de Man.
This works-in-progress talk sponsored by the L.P. Irvin Lecture Fund. For more information, contact Nicolette Utsinger, albinuna@miamiOH.edu.