This paper examines the debate between Fredric Jameson and Aijaz Ahmad in articles that appeared in SOCIAL TEXT 15 (1986) and SOCIAL TEXT 17 (1987) over the status of national allegory in third-world literature. It argues that national allegory can … Continue reading “National Allegory”
Issue: Issue 100 Collective History
Peer Review
stanley aronowitzStanley Aronowitz, Randy Martin, Sohnya Sayres, and Toby Miller discuss the reasons why SOCIAL TEXT is not a peer-reviewed journal and shed light on the nature of collective meetings. The conversation around the submissions and commissions at the meetings was … Continue reading “Peer Review”
Performance
Tavia Nyong'oCan “performance” ever be exactly defined? Or is the constitutive tension between what performances are and what performatives do simply part of what makes the field of performance studies politically pertinent?
Literature
john brenkmanReflecting on the role of literature in SOCIAL TEXT, John Brenkman, Stanley Aronowitz, Sohnya Sayres, and Andrew Ross discuss the vision of the journal as a hybrid between a political review and a literary magazine. They touch on literature as … Continue reading “Literature”
Poetry
brent hayes edwardsLiterature has been part of the purview of SOCIAL TEXT since the journal’s inception, although the literary has never been presumed to be its paradigmatic or primary object of study. Moreover, from issue 4 (1981) through issue 39 (1994), the … Continue reading “Poetry”
Policy and Planning
fred motenPolicy is the imposition of insecurity, the oppressive regulation of the plans and operations by which the objects of policy anticipate and object to policy. These are notes toward an understanding of policy that also take up the question of … Continue reading “Policy and Planning”
Postcolonialism
yolanda martinez-san miguelThis essay proposes a brief reflection on the meanings and relevancy of postcolonialism as a keyword in contemporary cultural studies. Taking as a point of departure the well-known etymological crisis through which many scholars feel compelled to explain how postcolonial … Continue reading “Postcolonialism”
The Means of Production
anders stephansonAnders Stephanson, Bruce Robbins, Andrew Ross, Randy Martin, and Sohnya Sayres reflect on the physical labor and the cumbersome procedures of getting the journal published in the early days.
Production
andrew rossIn this essay Andrew Ross reminisces about the methods and politics of collective production at SOCIAL TEXT in the 1980s and 1990s, recalling the hands-on participation of members of the SOCIAL TEXT collective in tasks like mailing out issues and … Continue reading “Production”
The First Issue
john brenkmanDiscussing the inaugural issue of SOCIAL TEXT, John Brenkman, Stanley Aronowitz, and Anders Stephanson emphasize the quality of the articles in terms of theoretical sophistication and the versatility of genres and questions tackled. The first issue aimed at making a … Continue reading “The First Issue”
Prospectus
john brenkmanThis essay revisits the “Prospectus” written by the author, Stanley Aronowitz, and Fredric Jameson for SOCIAL TEXT’s first issue and evaluates it with thirty years’ hindsight. It focuses on the journal’s position regarding Marxism and the then Soviet Union, and … Continue reading “Prospectus”
Queer and Disorderly
Gustavus StadlerThis essay examines contemporary lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) activism in the light of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s important SOCIAL TEXT piece from 1991, “How to Bring Your Kids Up Gay.” It revisits the restrictive views of gender that she discovered in the psychotherapeutic … Continue reading “Queer and Disorderly”
The Queer SOCIAL TEXT
José Esteban MuñozThis essay considers the history of “a queer text” in the journal SOCIAL TEXT. It posits that the journal, through individual essays and pivotal special issues, has made significant contributions to the development of a queer social theory. The essay … Continue reading “The Queer SOCIAL TEXT”
Racial Politics (in the United States)
roopali mukherjeeThis piece briefly revisits SOCIAL TEXT’s promise and vantage as a forum for emergent critical scholarship on the challenges of repoliticizing post-civil rights political subjectivities and the relevance of public intellectuals within the promise of black politics in the wake … Continue reading “Racial Politics (in the United States)”
Revolution
mjmThis essay reflects on the SOCIAL TEXT articles on revolution. Many first-world contributors to SOCIAL TEXT, on the one hand, reassessed Marxist theories of political consciousness and political economy in light of the praxis of third-world revolutionary experiences, especially those … Continue reading “Revolution”