Greetings from Scotland, and thanks to Lou for his comments and analysis, which seldom fail to be interesting and are usually pertinent, if not always 100% accurate. On accuracy, I'll just mention that the department at Duke that has "imploded" is not the Literature Program (at which I did, and continue to do, my PhD), but the English Department. And while the press may consistently confuse various theoretical and political tendencies--tarring them all with the same brush--it would be unwise to repeat this move if one wants an effective analysis. Thus beware: not all poststructuralisms, postmodernisms or postmarxisms are alike. Specifically, in this case, Stanley Fish (former chair of the English department) is an avowed conservative--if one worth listening to--while Fred Jameson (chair of the Literature Program) is more Marxist--of a Hegelian or Lukacsian variety--than postmarxist. But the fact that the Literature Program (whose program is generally much more recognizeably leftist) remains sturdy while serious problems have been revealed in the (generally more conservative) English Department is less, I think, a result of its political or theoretical orientation than of rather different hiring strategies, relations among the faculty, and the fact that it has always had fewer significant internal divisions. Not such an interesting story, but perhaps a more complicated one concerning academic labor practices and corporate organization. Meanwhile, rather than search for the apocryphal article that might reflect how much I was shaken by the Sokal affair (and rather than take the ironic reference to this affair at face value), perhaps better to look at my article "Peronism and the Secret History of Cultural Studies: Populism and the Substitution of Culture for State," in _Cultural Critique_ 39 (Spring 1998): 189-217. This might also clarify, a little better than can Lou, my position on the role of culture in politics. And education is bad for you whether you are at Duke, Aberdeen, or anywhere else. I know many said this on the old marxism list (Lou first among them), but they sometimes forgot that you don't have to be outside of academia to say it. Indeed, some of us hope that we may be heard saying it within academia. Take care and regards to all, especially to Lou Jon Jon Beasley-Murray Hispanic Studies University of Aberdeen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
