Policing Literary Theory

The present age of omnipresent terrorism is also an era of ever-expanding policing. What is the meaning -- and the consequences -- of this situation for literature and literary criticism? Policing Literary Theory attempts to answer these questions presenting intriguing and critical analyses of the interplays between police/policing and literature/literary criticism in a variety of linguistic milieus and literary traditions: American, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and others. The volume explores the mechanisms of formulation of knowledge about literature, theory, or culture in general in the post-Foucauldian surveillance society. Topics include North Korean dictatorship, spy narratives, censorship in literature and scholarship, Russian and Soviet authoritarianism, Eastern European cultures during communism, and Kafka’s work.

Contributors: Vladimir Biti, Reingard Nethersole, Călin-Andrei Mihăilescu, Sowon Park, Marko Juvan, Kyohei Norimatsu, Péter Hajdu, Norio Sakanaka, John Zilcosky, Yvonne Howell, and Takayuki Yokota-Murakami.

Călin-Andrei Mihăilescu, Ph.D. (1956), is Professor of Comparative Literature, Critical Theory and Hispanic Studies at Western University (London, Canada), and a tetra-lingual writer (of academic writings spanning a number of disciplines, of prose, poetry, essay, children stories, etc.). His recent volumes include Happy New Fear! (Bucharest, 2011), ＂Literary Theory and the Sciences＂ (ed.; Neohelicon 41.2, 2014), and Matei Călinescu Festschrift (ed., Yearbook of Comparative Literature 59, 2016). His forthcoming books include Deunamor, Afka and Other Positions, An Astrocentric World, Poezoo and One per Year.

Takayuki Yokota-Murakami, Ph.D. (1959), Osaka University, is Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at that university. He has published monographs, translations and many articles on Russian and Japanese literature, including Don Juan East/West: On the Problematics of Comparative Literature (SUNY P, 1998) and Futabatei Shimei (Kyoto: Minerva shobo, 2016). He is currently working on a book on the concept of ＂mother-tongue＂ in literature and literary criticism.