Explores how the French theory of philosophy, which became popular during the last three decades of the twentieth century, spread to America and examines the critical practices that French theory inspired.

What does it mean to"do theory" in America? In what ways has "French Theory" changed American intellectual and artistic life? How different is it from what French intellectuals themselves conceived, and what does all this tell us about American intellectual life? Is "French Theory" still a significant force in America, raising conceptual questions not easily answered? In this volume of new work--including the French writers Julia Kristeva, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, and Gilled Delezue, as well as essays by Sylvere Lotringer and Sande Cohen, Mario Biagoli, Elie During, Chris Kraus, Alison Gingeras, and Kriss Ravetto, among others--French theorists assess the impact and reception of their work in America, and American-based critics account for their effects in different areas of cultural criticism and art over the last thirty years.

Many postwar American artists were influenced by French philosophy, literary studies, and social sciences. Accordingly, a number of French authors gathered under the label "French Theory"--a name referring roughly to structuralism and post structuralism--has received sustained attention in the United States. As early as the early 1960s, this reception helped to shape both American artistic practice and the fate of French thought in a crucial way. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the wealth of works from the human sciences and philosophy in American culture became the subject of numerous studies. French Theory and American Art examines some of the main historical conditions of this reception. It considers significant texts, artists, authors, and events that were instrumental in the introduction of French thought into the artistic field of the United States. The relation between artistic creation and theoretical thought, between singular, inventive uses and creative misunderstandings of theory, constitutes the other major question of the present volume. Copublished with (SIC) Contributors Philip Armstrong, Victor Burgin, François Cusset, Larisa Dryansky, Benjamin Greenman, Rachel Haidu, Sylvère Lotringer, Stephen Melville, Laura Mulvey, Kassandra Nakas, Peter Osborne, Jean-Michel Rabaté, John Rajchman, Katia Schneller, Alexander Streitberger, Hilde Van Gelder, Erik Verhagen

Working from the premise that May '68 is a shorthand that delimits an intensive decade of global revolt, Jason Demers documents the cross-pollination of French philosophy, international activist movements, and American countercultures. From the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and George Jackson to the revolt at Columbia University, the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Woodstock, and the Weather Underground, Demers writes French theory into a constellation of American events and icons uncontained by national borders. More than a compelling new take on the history of theory, The American Politics of French Theory develops concepts gleaned from the work of Derrida, Deleuze, Guattari, and Foucault, providing new tools for thinking about translation, theory, and politics. By recontextualizing "French theory" within a complex fabric of mass communication and global revolt, Demers demonstrates why it is politically potent and methodologically necessary to think of translation associatively.

At a time when the relevance of literary theory itself is frequently being questioned, Richard Wilson makes a compelling case for French Theory in Shakespeare Studies. Written in two parts, the first half looks at how French theorists such as Bourdieu, Cixous, Deleuze, Derrida and Foucault were themselves shaped by reading Shakespeare; while the second part applies their theories to the plays, highlighting the importance of both for current debates about borders, terrorism, toleration and a multi-cultural Europe. Contrasting French and Anglo-Saxon attitudes, Wilson shows how in France, Shakespeare has been seen not as a man for the monarchy, but a man of the mob. French Theory thus helps us understand why Shakepeare’s plays swing between violence and hope. Highlighting the recent religious turn in theory, Wilson encourages a reading of plays like Hamlet, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelth Night as models for a future peace. Examining both the violent history and promising future of the plays, Shakespeare in French Theory is a timely reminder of the relevance of Shakespeare and the lasting value of French thinking for the democracy to come.

This work focuses on the series of encounters between the most prominent French philosophers of the 1960s and 1970s and the artists of their times, most particularly the protagonists of the Narrative Figuration movement.

This accomplished book provides a peerless account of the French tradition. It provides an overview of French social theory; divides French social theory into three coherent cycles: positivist, anthropological and Marxist; and situates the discussions of individuals and schools in the relevant social and political contexts.