Introduction

The papers collected here were delivered at a SubStance conference at the University of Western Ontario that aimed to address the passage of theory from Paris to America, at a moment of intense questioning about the future of “literary and cultural criticism” in academia. The topic, although hardly new, has taken on a new urgency in light of recent political events and issues in France and America, and in light of on-going questions: those in literary studies about the value and role of theory; the ethical problems implicit in tthe overlap, if any, between theory and social action; concerns about the ethics of particular projects undertaken in the name of theory and criticism, and the relationship between epistemological claims arising from theory and cultural criticism, and claims made in other realms, notably the sciences.