Walter Benn Michaels
Encyclopedia
Walter Benn Michaels is an American literary theorist
, known as the author of Our America: Nativism, Modernism and Pluralism (1995) and The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History (2004). Michaels’s work has generated a set of arguments and questions around a host of issues that are central to literary studies: problems of culture and race, identities national and personal, the difference between memory and history, disagreement and difference, and meaning and intention in interpretation.
. Afterwards, he taught at Johns Hopkins University
(1974–1977, 1987–2001) and the University of California, Berkeley
(1977–1987). Since 2001, he has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago
.
His study of American Naturalism, The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism; American Literature at the Turn of the Century, was published in 1987.
Michaels is a renowned teacher. His article "Against Theory", co-written with Steven Knapp
, is included in the Norton Anthology of Literary Criticism.
He is currently Professor in the Department of English, at the University of Illinois at Chicago
, where he served as Head from 2001-2007.
was the “research and development” phase of an identitarianism that came to dominate twentieth century American ideas. Linked to this thesis was his argument that nativist modernism established our strategy for answering the question of which culture we should have by determining first what our race was. As he put it, “the idea of cultural identity — despite the fact that in recent years it has customarily been presented as an alternative to racial identity — is in fact, not only historically but logically, an extension of racial identity” (Michaels, “Response”). Central to the book was its contention that the notion of cultural identity, and identity as such, had become not a description of a group’s actual practices and values, but rather the object of an essentialist ambition of becoming what you already were.
Michaels’s critique of identity continued in the decade that followed, especially in his next book The Shape of the Signifier. This book, like his previous one, proceeded by revealing the shared logic between what were supposed to be antithetical political positions. What did it mean, the book wondered, that a liberal thinker like Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
and a multiculturalist like Toni Morrison
were both interested in redescribing history – something that has to be learned – as a kind of memory – something you experienced? What did it mean, furthermore, for Paul de Man
and other poststructuralists to focus on the “materiality of the signifier” – what words look like or feel like at the expense of what they mean – a focus they seemed to share with contemporary literary writers like Kathy Acker
and Brett Easton Ellis and with contemporary science fiction writers like Kim Stanley Robinson
? What these strategies shared, the book went on to suggest, was an emerging primacy of the subject position, a primacy that rendered the question of who you were – your identity – as more important than what you believed. The war on terror has only completed this emergence, rendering obsolete, as Francis Fukuyama
and Samuel P. Huntington
seemed to say, any question of ideological disagreement about capitalism and social organization, because in the war on terror, as President Bush has put it, you’re either for us or you’re against us – and with, in other words, the “evildoers.”
The speed of Michaels’s logic proceeds through readings of the homologies and simultaneities of what are supposed to be important differences. Like some other notable political theorists (such as Nancy Fraser
), Michaels suggests that the language of identity has displaced an argument about economic inequality – that we now have a politics of recognition, but not a politics of redistribution. Such is the argument of his 2006 book The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality, which stresses that America is too preoccupied with issues regarding race at the expense of those involving class.
Walter Benn Michaels also appears in Everything's an Argument book intended for college students
Literary theory
Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...
, known as the author of Our America: Nativism, Modernism and Pluralism (1995) and The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History (2004). Michaels’s work has generated a set of arguments and questions around a host of issues that are central to literary studies: problems of culture and race, identities national and personal, the difference between memory and history, disagreement and difference, and meaning and intention in interpretation.
Biography
Michaels gained his BA in 1970 and PhD in 1975 from the University of California, Santa BarbaraUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
. Afterwards, he taught at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
(1974–1977, 1987–2001) and the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
(1977–1987). Since 2001, he has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...
.
His study of American Naturalism, The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism; American Literature at the Turn of the Century, was published in 1987.
Michaels is a renowned teacher. His article "Against Theory", co-written with Steven Knapp
Steven Knapp
Steven Knapp is the current president of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., having assumed office in August, 2007. He is the 16th president of the university, succeeding Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. Previously, he was the provost and dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the...
, is included in the Norton Anthology of Literary Criticism.
He is currently Professor in the Department of English, at the University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...
, where he served as Head from 2001-2007.
Ideas
In Our America, he argued that 1920s American nativist modernismModernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
was the “research and development” phase of an identitarianism that came to dominate twentieth century American ideas. Linked to this thesis was his argument that nativist modernism established our strategy for answering the question of which culture we should have by determining first what our race was. As he put it, “the idea of cultural identity — despite the fact that in recent years it has customarily been presented as an alternative to racial identity — is in fact, not only historically but logically, an extension of racial identity” (Michaels, “Response”). Central to the book was its contention that the notion of cultural identity, and identity as such, had become not a description of a group’s actual practices and values, but rather the object of an essentialist ambition of becoming what you already were.
Michaels’s critique of identity continued in the decade that followed, especially in his next book The Shape of the Signifier. This book, like his previous one, proceeded by revealing the shared logic between what were supposed to be antithetical political positions. What did it mean, the book wondered, that a liberal thinker like Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. was an American historian and social critic whose work explored the American liberalism of political leaders including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. A Pulitzer Prize winner, Schlesinger served as special assistant and "court historian"...
and a multiculturalist like Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
were both interested in redescribing history – something that has to be learned – as a kind of memory – something you experienced? What did it mean, furthermore, for Paul de Man
Paul de Man
Paul de Man was a Belgian-born deconstructionist literary critic and theorist.He began teaching at Bard College. Later, he completed his Ph.D. at Harvard University in the late 1950s...
and other poststructuralists to focus on the “materiality of the signifier” – what words look like or feel like at the expense of what they mean – a focus they seemed to share with contemporary literary writers like Kathy Acker
Kathy Acker
Kathy Acker was an American experimental novelist, punk poet, playwright, essayist, postmodernist and sex-positive feminist writer. She was strongly influenced by the Black Mountain School, William S...
and Brett Easton Ellis and with contemporary science fiction writers like Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the fifteen years of research...
? What these strategies shared, the book went on to suggest, was an emerging primacy of the subject position, a primacy that rendered the question of who you were – your identity – as more important than what you believed. The war on terror has only completed this emergence, rendering obsolete, as Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist, and author. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford. Before that he served as a professor and director of the International Development program at the School of...
and Samuel P. Huntington
Samuel P. Huntington
Samuel Phillips Huntington was an influential American political scientist who wrote highly-regarded books in a half-dozen sub-fields of political science, starting in 1957...
seemed to say, any question of ideological disagreement about capitalism and social organization, because in the war on terror, as President Bush has put it, you’re either for us or you’re against us – and with, in other words, the “evildoers.”
The speed of Michaels’s logic proceeds through readings of the homologies and simultaneities of what are supposed to be important differences. Like some other notable political theorists (such as Nancy Fraser
Nancy Fraser
Nancy Fraser is an American critical theorist, currently the Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science and professor of philosophy at The New School in New York City...
), Michaels suggests that the language of identity has displaced an argument about economic inequality – that we now have a politics of recognition, but not a politics of redistribution. Such is the argument of his 2006 book The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality, which stresses that America is too preoccupied with issues regarding race at the expense of those involving class.
Essays
- "Against Theory", Critical Inquiry 8.4 (Summer 1982): 723-42.
- "The Death of a Beautiful Woman: Christopher Nolan's Idea of Form", ebr: the electronic book review (1 October 2007).
- "Going Boom", http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/015_05/3274 (February/March 2009).
- "Neoliberal Aesthetics: Fried, Ranciere and the Form of the Photograph"
Books
- The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality. New York: Metropolitan, 2006.
- The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.
- Our America: Nativism, Modernism and Pluralism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.
- The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism. University of California Press: Berkeley, 1987.
Interviews
- "Let Them Eat Diversity" (Jacobin (magazine)Jacobin (magazine)Jacobin is a quarterly magazine of culture and polemic based out of Washington, D.C, New York and London. The publication began as an online magazine released in September of 2010, but expanded into a print journal later that year...
, Winter 2011).
Walter Benn Michaels also appears in Everything's an Argument book intended for college students