To get out of the canoe: the question of theory/the theory in question

Abstract

In a text entitled “Luiz Costa Lima and the theory of the novel (Return to Poetics)” (2020), we critically analyze the theorization of novel in the work of the Brazilian theorist as part of his broader theorization about mimesis and the control of the imaginary. Costa Lima’s response appears two years later, with the title “The question of theory” (2022). In this text, we present a rejoinder, with a view less to the theorization of novel than to the so-called “question of theory”, something that Costa Lima names with a view to a debate he led almost half a century ago regarding the place and function of theory of literature in literary studies in Brazil.