Literary Theory after Populism
Literary Theory after Populism

Summary/Abstract: The article proposes three theses on the status of literary and critical theory afterthe populist incursions of the “long 2016.” First: that an already-ailing “theory” failed todistinguish itself from professional class anti-populism during the political upheavals ofTrump, Brexit, Corbyn, Bernie Sanders, and others. Second: that there is within literarytheory’s history a concealed tradition of “literary populism”; the normative belief thatgood or desirable writing has some surreptitious connection to the idioms of ordinarypeople. And third: that there are lessons to learn from the broadly forgotten episode ofTerry Eagleton’s critique of Raymond Williams in the late 1970s – where the charge wasthat Williams himself was a populist.

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