Coda

Theory matters

Martin Middeke

Christoph Reinfandt

pp. 349-350

in: Martin Middeke, Christoph Reinfandt (eds), Theory matters, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

It would perhaps be too much of a good thing and counter-productive altogether to expect a truly common denominator at the end of a collaborative effort dedicated to the allocation of the place of theory in literary and cultural studies today. Rather than artificially synthesizing or neatly typologizing the current state of affairs in the light of the contributions to this volume, our diagnosis highlights difference, plurality, creativity, unpredictability, performativity, a dialogic interdisciplinarity, complexity, and, after all, the acceptance of contingency at the heart of theoretical discourse in the humanities today.