My interests in Critical Theory lie within the formation and operation of specific discourses.
 

Questions I ask include:

In what way does the manipulation of tropes by a discipline shape a discipline's discourse?

How do the syntactic preferences of a discourse shape the thought processes of its speakers and writers?

Is a clear understanding of the syntactic and tropic preferences of disciplines a route to interdisciplinary

dialogue?

 

The topic of my PhD is 'Incommensurability'; working with Jean-Francois Lyotard's application of the term to

discourse in Le Differend (The Differend:Phrases in Dispute, Manchester University Press, 1988), I researched the process of the formation of scientific discourse in the English language

during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and in parallel the development of poetic discourse

within the same historical period.

 

Critical Theory engages actively and often controversially with the textual accounts of contemporary scientific

research. There is considerable friction between those who practice textual analysis and those who produce the

texts.

I have published on this topic in the journal Textual Practice, vol 13, Issue 2, Summer 1999.

 

My teaching interests explore the interaction between Critical and Literary Theory and Literature.