I just found an interesting paragraph regarding Anonymous's comments on the
canon. It studies critique as warfare. For the whole article see
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/text-only/issue.196/mann.196
Paul Mann, Professor of English at Pomona, "The Nine Grounds of Intellectual
Warfare," _Postmodern Culture_ v6 n2 (January 1996)
Without exception, all positions are oriented toward the
institutional apparatus. Marginality here is only relative
and temporary: the moment black studies or women's studies
or queer theory conceives of itself as a discipline, its
primary orientation is toward the institution. The fact
that the institution might treat it badly hardly
constitutes an ethical privilege. Any intellectual who
holds a position is a function of this apparatus; his or
her marginality is, for the most part, only an operational
device. It is a critical commonplace that the state is not
a monolithic hegemony but rather a constellation of
disorganized and fragmentary agencies of production. This
is often taken as a validation for the political potential
of marginal critical movements: inside-outside relations
can be facilely deconstructed and critics can still
congratulate themselves on their "resistance." But the
contrary is clearly the case. The most profitable
intellectual production does not take place at the center
(e.g., Romance Philology), where mostly obsolete weapons
are produced; the real growth industries are located
precisely on the self-proclaimed margins. It will be
argued that resistance is still possible; %nothing I
propose here argues against such a possibility%. I wish
only to insist that effective resistance will never be
located in the position, however oppositional it imagines
itself to be. Resistance is first of all a function of the
apparatus itself. What would seem to be the transgressive
potential of such institutional agencies as certain orders
of gender criticism might demonstrate the entropy of the
institution, but it does nothing to prove the
counterpolitical claims of the position. Fantasies of
resistance often serve as alibis for collusion. Any
position is a state agency, and its relative marginality is
a mode of orientation, not an exception. Effective
resistance must be located in other tactical forms.
~Nate
canon. It studies critique as warfare. For the whole article see
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/text-only/issue.196/mann.196
Paul Mann, Professor of English at Pomona, "The Nine Grounds of Intellectual
Warfare," _Postmodern Culture_ v6 n2 (January 1996)
Without exception, all positions are oriented toward the
institutional apparatus. Marginality here is only relative
and temporary: the moment black studies or women's studies
or queer theory conceives of itself as a discipline, its
primary orientation is toward the institution. The fact
that the institution might treat it badly hardly
constitutes an ethical privilege. Any intellectual who
holds a position is a function of this apparatus; his or
her marginality is, for the most part, only an operational
device. It is a critical commonplace that the state is not
a monolithic hegemony but rather a constellation of
disorganized and fragmentary agencies of production. This
is often taken as a validation for the political potential
of marginal critical movements: inside-outside relations
can be facilely deconstructed and critics can still
congratulate themselves on their "resistance." But the
contrary is clearly the case. The most profitable
intellectual production does not take place at the center
(e.g., Romance Philology), where mostly obsolete weapons
are produced; the real growth industries are located
precisely on the self-proclaimed margins. It will be
argued that resistance is still possible; %nothing I
propose here argues against such a possibility%. I wish
only to insist that effective resistance will never be
located in the position, however oppositional it imagines
itself to be. Resistance is first of all a function of the
apparatus itself. What would seem to be the transgressive
potential of such institutional agencies as certain orders
of gender criticism might demonstrate the entropy of the
institution, but it does nothing to prove the
counterpolitical claims of the position. Fantasies of
resistance often serve as alibis for collusion. Any
position is a state agency, and its relative marginality is
a mode of orientation, not an exception. Effective
resistance must be located in other tactical forms.
~Nate