as someone who, rightly or wrongly, thinks of himself as someting of a theorist, i rush to defend jeremy butler with a number of small points 1. parody is not an escape from engaging with a position and the people who hold it; it is itself another way of engaging 2. louis schwartz himself seems to want to avoid engaging with the substance of the parody . . . instead he asks for something suspiciously like censorship . . . i would be eager to see his "deconstruction" [as it were] of the parodic discourse, rather than his rsorting to name calling 3. it almost seems that for louis schwartz only semiotics and deconstruction count as "real" theory, and he laments the turn [descent?] to the poverty of historicism and cultural studies . . . where i come from both of these count as highly theoretical enterprises 4. finally one factula matter . . . louis schwartz claims that "Theory's value in US universities is at a new low". . . . let me remind him that not all that long ago theory simply played no part whatsoever in the literature curriculum . . . when i went to school i wanted to get a degree [from a major ivy league university] in criticims and theory but that was ot possible so i took my degree in prose fiction --an acceptable rubric -- while loading up on as many theoretically and philosophically oriented courses as possible that today deaprtments are no longer in thrall to the sirens of theory seems to me a very good thing, but it hardly means that attention to theory is at a new low . . . in most places it has never been higher mike louis schwartz <[log in to unmask]> Sent by: Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> 08/18/2002 11:43 AM Please respond to Film and TV Studies Discussion List To: [log in to unmask] cc: (bcc: Michael Frank/Faculty/Bentley) Subject: Re: Grad Student Deconstructs Take-Out Menu While I laughed at the piece Jeremy Butler posted when I read it in the Onion, I wonder why he chose to post it in the forum. Surely Professor Butler knows that in the current academic climate, jobs teaching theory are few and far between. Theory's value in US universities is at a new low. We are told by senior scholars that the era of "post-theory" has arrived. Currently, historicism and cultural studies hold pride of place in the humanities. Theorists are lucky if they can find a place in their institutions curriculum for a serious class on semiotics, for example. In such a context is it appropriate for the administrator of this list to post a parody of practice that universities have already relegated to the dustbin? If professor Butler had presented an argument about the limits of theory, it would have been redundant, but at least it would not seem to write off theory as a game played by young fools. I thought this list was meant to be an open forum for people in the field. Such a post from the list's administrator suggests that this is not quite the case. How can this be an open forum when the people running the list show open contempt for some of the members by subjecting them to mockery rather than engaging with them intellectually? Louis Schwartz Assistant Professor Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature University of Iowa 319 335 0639 ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]