Although alphabetically arranged, Glossalalia - An Alphabet of Critical Keywords is not a conventional glossary or dictionary. It is an agenda-setting volume which speculates on the state of theory in the twenty-first century. 26 newly commissioned essays provide distinct, original sometimes playful or unusual definitions of theoretical keywords - both unexpected terms as well as words well-established in the critical canon:AnimalityBiotechnologiesChoraDifferenceEvent FlirtingGeneticsHypertextIJouissance KnowledgeLoveMusicNationOriginsPoeticsQuiltingReificationSchizoanalysisTele-techno-theologyUniversalsVisualityWitX Yarn ZeroThe volume invites the reader to engage with and enjoy theory, to seek out connections and become aware of the process of critical thinking. Anyone with theoretical interests in the humanities and in the future possibilities of theory will be delighted and intrigued by this volume.

I find myself really curious about Wolfreys’s Glossalalia - An Alphabet of Critical Keywords . The topics are so diverse and so tantalizing (Flirting! Yarn! X!). The attraction of essays approaching the large topic of theory from such slightly offbeat perspectives is immense. Wolfreys has assembled an impressive collection of collaborators from both Britain and the United States. -- J Hillis Miller, Distinguished Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine

Julian Wolfeys is Professor of English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, where he is also Director of the Centre for Studies in Literature. He is author and editor of more than 40 books on nineteenth- and twentieth-century English literature and literary theory. Most recently he has published Dickens’s London and The Derrida Wordbook, both with Edinburgh University Press. He recently published his first novel, Silent Music.