Theory Conspiracy

Theory Conspiracy provides a state-of-the-art collection that takes stage on the meeting and/or battlegrounds between conspiracy theory and theory-asconspiracy. By deliberately scrambling the syntax—conspiracy theory cum theory conspiracy—it seeks to open a set of reflections on the articulation between theory and conspiracy that addresses how conspiracy might rattle the sense of theory as such. In this sense, the volume also inevitably stumbles on the recent debates on postcritique. The suspicion that our ways of reading in the humanities have been far too suspicious, if not paranoid, has gained considerable attention in a humanities continuously questioned as superfluous at best and leftist and dangerous at worst. The chapters in this volume all approach this problematic from different angles. It features clear engaging writing by a set of contributors who have published extensively on questions of paranoia, conspiracy theory, and/or the state of theory today. This collection will appeal to readers interested in conspiracy theories, critical theory, and the future of humanities. Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Contributors Acknowledgments Theory Conspiracy: An Introduction Notes Works Cited Part 1 Background 1 Being Catiline: Sex, Lies, and Coup D’états in the Liberal Order One Two Three Notes Works Cited 2 Unsettling History: How an Egyptian Conspiracy Theory Turns Time Into Place Unsettling a Scandal: Dinshaway as a Metonym Unsettling Documentation: The Spectacle of Sources Unsettling the Pace: Swift Post-Revolutionary History Unsettling Time: Eyewitnessing a Century-Old Case Conclusion Notes Works Cited 3 The Kristeva File Notes Works Cited 4 A Portrait of Baudelaire as a Conspiracy Theorist Baudelaire, the Bohemian Conspirator Poetry and Paranoia Conspiracies Past and Present Writing Conspiracy Notes Works Cited Part 2 Contemporary 5 Conspiracy and Ressentiment: The Vexed Politics of the Gilets Jaunes Populist Politics Ressentiment and Identitarianism From the Great Replacement to the Becoming Black of the World Notes Works Cited 6 Ugly Freedoms and Insurrectionary Conspiracies Conspiracy Theories and the Problem of Freedom January 6, Trump, and Conspiracies of American Freedom Conclusion Notes Works Cited 7 Don’t Look Up, Birds Aren’t Real: Comedy and Conspiracy Evil Versus Stupid Don’t Look Up Birds Aren’t Real Notes Works Cited Part 3 Critical 8 Has Conspiracy Theory Run Out of Steam? Has Critique Run Out of Steam? Has the Critique of Critique Run Out of Steam? Critique of Conspiracy Theory Has Conspiracy Theory Run Out of Steam? Conspiracy Theories of Critique Beyond Conspiracy Theory and Critique Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited 9 A Reparative Chronotope of Critique Critique The Hermeneutics of Suspicion Theory A Reparative Chronotope of Critique Conclusion Notes Works Cited 10 Conspiring With Theory: Popper, Antitheory, and the Epistemology of Ignorance Against Historicism The Conspiracy Theory of Ignorance The Conspiracy Theory of Society The Conspiracy Theory of Theory Conclusion Notes Works Cited 11 A Sketch of Conspiratorial Reason From Conspiracy Theory to Conspiratorial Reason Enlightenment as Revelation Scripting Conspiratorial Reason Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Index