LITERATURE IN THEORY: TROPES, SUBJECTIVITIES, RESPONSES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Jacques Derrida has argued about the difference between literature and theory that despite its institutional status, part of its 'institution' is the right of literature to say anything. Literature cannot be defined as such, and as soon as one seeks to produce a reading of the literary, complications arise. 

Yet despite its institutional significance, 'theory' remains something many wish would go away; and which, for others, is still not read, is misread, and remains to be read. Like literature, it remains as an enigmatic identity, resistant to definition, but subject to misperceptions and open to general statements that are more or less inaccurate.