"Theory Conspiracy provides a state-of-the-art collection that takes stage on the meeting- and/or battlegrounds between conspiracy theory and theory-as-conspiracy. By deliberately scrambling the syntax-conspiracy theory cum theory conspiracy-it seeks to open a set of reflections on the articulation between theory and conspiracy that addresses how conspiracy might rattle the sense of theory as such. In this sense, the volume also inevitably stumbles on the recent debates on postcritique. The suspicion that our ways of reading in the humanities have been far too suspicious, if not paranoid, has gained considerable attention in a humanities continuously questioned as superfluous at best and leftist and dangerous at worst. The essays in this volume all approach this problematic from different angles. It features clear engaging writing by a set of contributors who have published extensively on questions of paranoia, conspiracy theory, and/or the state of theory today. This collection will appeal to readers interested in conspiracy theories, critical theory, and the future of humanities"-- Provided by publisher.

Theory conspiracy: an introduction /Frida Beckman and Jeffrey R. Di Leo -- Part 1. Background. Being Catiline: sex, lies, and coup d'états in the liberal order / Paul Allen Miller -- Unsettling history: how an Egyptian conspiracy theory turns time into place / Elena Chiti -- The Kristeva file / John Mowitt -- A portrait of Baudelaire as a conspiracy theorist / Brian O'Keeffe -- Part 2. Contemporary. Conspiracy and ressentiment: the vexed politics of the Gilets Jaunes / Zahi Zalloua -- Ugly freedoms and insurrectionary conspiracies / Elisabeth R. Anker -- Don't look up, birds aren't real: comedy and conspiracy / Sophia A. McClennen -- Part 3. Critical. Has conspiracy theory run out of steam? / Clare Birchall and Peter Knight -- A reparative chronotope of critique / Frida Beckman -- Conspiring with theory: Popper, antitheory, and the epistemology of ignorance / Jeffrey R. Di Leo -- A sketch of conspiratorial reason / Timothy Melley.