Anecdotal Theory (review)

Jane Gallop is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Along with some books on feminist literary theory in the deconstructivist tradition, she has also published Feminist Accused of Sexual Harassment, describing and analyzing an intriguing episode of her campus life when she was accused of harassment by two of her failing students. The accusation came to nothing—obviously the students had wanted to take revenge on her—but it left a bitter mark on Gallop's life and perhaps a blemish on her career.

This "anecdote," as Gallop herself calls it, is central to the first half of this book of nine essays. This time, however, it is not the story itself that gets the emphasis but the way it is treated in several texts. The author has left the facts behind her to concentrate on what might be learned from the way the facts are dealt with. The way theory is constructed (!) by means of the deconstruction of the anecdote is what interests her. And she constructs her theory with wit and elegance.

Usually, anecdote and theory have diametrically opposed connotations: humorous versus serious, specific versus general, trivial versus overarching, short versus grand. Gallop shows how transcending the anecdote without losing sight of it can fertilize theory-making and demonstrates how theory gains perspective and relevance when it is applied to the trivial and lets itself be impregnated by it. In this sense, the abstract becomes real and the general acquires the flavor of the specific. (Hegelian dialectics are not far away, wouldn't you think?) Of course, analyzing specific cases is not new. Freud and Lacan, the grand masters of psychoanalysis, did it. And more recently, Slavoj Zizek has done some masterly things as well. But Gallop's approach is different in the sense that she sticks to the anecdote throughout the analysis, without ever losing sight of it. The anecdote, she says in one of her two lengthy introductions, is a window onto reality, and she radically refuses to shut that window and retreat into speculative academic semi-dusk. By doing so, Gallop actually sheds some light on the relationship between anecdote, theory and theorizing. The most enlightening, and probably also the funniest, essay in this bundle is "A Tale of Two Jacques," about Derrida and Lacan. Practically all the paragraphs start with some temporal statement, situating the essay in time and turning it into a story, connecting several anecdotes. Gallop visits a lecture by Derrida; she dreams; she visits Lacan and Derrida again; she reads an essay, etc. Each time, her understanding of the critique of Lacan by Derrida changes and is seen under a different light. Gradually, she moves into a theory of her own, about her understanding of the two and about herself.

For readers who are not used to the jargon of feminist theory, post-structuralism and deconstructivism, this book might be a bit problematic, but the problems are not insurmountable. Just do not bother to get too deep into it. There is no need to. Gallop knows very well that these parlances are all but on their way out. Fortunately, she knows how to wrap the parcels in something lighter and more transparent, and the conclusions are clear anyway. It is a gifted author who can do this.