Theorious Nerdious Maximus

I have come out to all my classmates as an uncommonly avid theory nerd.

My latest project for classes has been tackling the great, grey beast that is a book by Ania Loomba entitled Colonialism/Postcolonialism. It's a great introduction to the evolution of the postcolonial discourse (including Foucault's development of the term 'discourse'). Ordinarily, I would skip through it, getting the basic structure of the arguments without worrying about retaining all the information for the long term. For those unfamiliar with graduate studies, the courses include an absurd amount of reading (not to mention secondary/supplemental readings) that is actually more than a person can read in one week. My strategy is to familiarize myself with the basic content of the book; I will read what I can and then remember the book will be a resource to return to if/when I want additional information.

This strategy doesn't really work with theory because I feel it is important to understand the logic of the argument in order to apply it responsibly in my work. Facts are easier to verify. Rationalizing an argument or performing a Foucaultian analysis of power structures within a play require a bit more of my brain power.

And this wouldn't be so overwhelming if I wasn't enjoying it so much. I can't put it down! Okay, I can, but I keep coming back to it. I don't want to read plays right now: I want to have a mental showdown with Foucault and Saussure and Lacan. It becomes even more fun when you realize that my Strategies and Analysis course will cover a different topic each week. So I will keep encountering some of these theories in different contexts and have to reconcile the new knowledge with the older knowledge. I was feeling a little battered earlier, but I think it's time to get back in the ring and to start swinging.