Friends, deconstruction is old hat; nobody seriously disbelieves
in that any more.  It was replaced by New Historicism, which is
sort of like the old historicism without any history. New Historicism
is now old, though not as old as New Criticism: the post office
probably lost the letter announcing this fact to Jonathan Arac,
Forrest Robinson, and Susan Gillman.

What's in now, or the last time I looked, is the performative.
This is great for Twain folks, because Mark Twain was a performer!
Except that the performative isn't exactly the same thing as
performance.  There is performance theory, but drama people have
possession of that and are not enthusiastic about sharing it with
literature people.

Also, complaining about the latest "in" fad in academia is so
old that it has moss growing on it. Once the forum starts talking
about the moral decline of the west, I'm outa here.

Glen Johnson (or an electronic simulacrum thereof)