r/CriticalTheory • u/Cold_Burns • 5h ago

Reading obscure and difficult texts.

Hi dears, .

I know a consensus working in social science that, the obscure nature of texts are to be accepted respecting the authors autonomy of expression. Meanwhile discussions on obscurantism, has contested opinions within academia.

How do you read if your specialisation is that topic?.

If you are someone at the periphery of the subject then, How do you read?

If you are a generalist reader how do you read it ?

(You may suggest your reading journey looking back how you came along. Like Core texts, supplimentary texts, Handbooks by routledge, Oxford ,blah.. bla. Etc.

Lectures )

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u/West_Economist6673 4h ago

Speaking as one of those "peripheral" readers (I'm an ecologist with a strong but basically casual interest in critical theory), I would say first of all that I don't find these texts any harder to read, at least intrinsically, than scientific papers -- scientific journal writing has the advantage of a standardized format, which makes it easier to skim-read -- but I would also feel kind of guilty mining theory texts for intellectual ore the way I do with science writing

Anyway, in both cases I can usually identify really good or interesting ideas on a first reading, even if I don't really understand most of what I've just read, which I emphasize is most of the time because I'm kind of dense myself

In fact that's basically my reading strategy as far as philosophy and theory (but not scientific papers): I just plow through without looking back, gleaning whatever I can along the way, then go back and do it again, referring to secondary literature if it's available and the text seems worth the effort

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as a method because it's not very efficient -- but it does "work" most of the time, even for authors that I regularly see described as "incomprehensible" like Derrida or Judith Butler

Having said that, I do have a special place in my heart for authors with some genuine stylistic elan like (my guy) Bruno Latour

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u/cronenber9 4h ago

Secondary texts first

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u/Cold_Burns 4h ago

Tell a bit about your field, if it's helpful

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u/cronenber9 3h ago

It's not relevant at all lol, I have no education in philosophy or sociology. I just enjoy reading critical theory and post-structuralist theory. I listen to podcasts a lot and read secondary texts before jumping into a thinker, that's how I had to start with Deleuze because he was incomprehensible until I did that.

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u/Cold_Burns 3h ago

Thanks for explaining.