Crossing Borders

"Crossing Borders" explores the question of what happens to theory when it literally crosses borders from one culture to another. The author investigates the histories of reception theory, poststructuralism and deconstruction in postwar Germany and the United States. He looks at how imported theories assume a place in the political discourse of a country, and how indigenous intellectual traditions and prejudices affect, modify, or even distort foreign theories. Holub addresses many questions and demonstrates the extent to which theoretical work needs to be understood in cultural, intellectual and institutional contexts. He argues that the praxis of theories is determined not only by their content and style, but also by the environment in which they must function. The success of the transplanted theory, he contends, is due less to its inherent merits than to the hospitability of the environment onto which it is grafted.