Anecdotal
Theory
by Jane Gallop
Dale University Press, Durham 2002,
179 pp.
ISBN: 0-8223-3038-5
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Jan Delvinlaan 115, 9000 Gent, Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be
Jane Gallop is Professor of English and
Comparative Literature at the University
of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Among some books
on feminist literature theory in the deconstuctivist
tradition, she published 'Feminist Accused
of Sexual Harassment', describing and analysing
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 Gallops life and
perhaps a blemish on her carreer.
This 'anecdote', as
Gallop herself calls is, is again central
to the first half of this book of nine essays.
However, this time 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. It is the way theory
is constructed (!) by means of the deconstruction
of the anecdote that interests her. And
she does so with wit and elegance.
Usually, anecdote and theory have diametrically
opposed connotations: humurous versus serious,
specific versus general, trivial versus
overarching, short versus grand. Gallop
shows how transcending the anecdote without
losing sight of it can fertilise theory-making
and how theory gains perspective and relevance
when applied to the trivial and letting
itself be impregnated by it. In this sense,
the abstract becomes real and the general
gets the flavour of the specific. (Hegelian
dialectics are not far away, wouldn't you
think?) Of course, analysing specific cases
is not new. The grand masters of psychoanalysis
Freud and Lacan did it. And more recently,
Slavoj Zizek has done some masterly things
as well. But Gallops 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, she actually
sheds some light on the relation between
anecdote, theory and theorising. The most
enlightening, and probably also the funniest,
essay in this bundle is A Tale of Two Jaques,
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, poststructuralism and
deconstructivism, this book might be a bit
problematic but the problems are not insurmountable.
Just don't 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's a gifted author who can do
this.