Description: A state-of-the-art overview and reappraisal of the literary and philosophical origins of theory and, in particular, of modern subjectivity.
Brief description: Eloy LaBrada is an instructor in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at the University of Alberta, Canada, where he specializes in the philosophy of gender and sexuality, social ontology, analytic feminism, and the history of modern philosophy and literature. His articles have appeared in PMLA (2016) and JNT(2016).
Review Quotes: Inventing Agency, Essay on the Literary and Philosophical Production of the Modern Subjectoffers an admirable examination of the multiple ways the capacity to think and act, to reflect or negate have been both re-defined and questioned in the modern era. The authors gathered in this volume engage in a productive dialogue, focusing on distinctive works and critical perspectives. The question of agency is approached through a variety of texts that focus on aesthetics, philosophy, painting, narrative strategies and historical singularities. Knowledgeable and provocative, Inventing Agency goes far beyond the terms with which, from Descartes to Kant, the question of the authority and status of the subject have been framed, raising important questions regarding communicability and current forms of critical thought in its relationship to history.
Marie-Hélène Huet, M. Taylor Pyne Professor of French and Italian, Princeton University, USA