The Entangled Page: Method, Matter, and Machine in Post-Theoretical Criticism

In a world where literary criticism has long been dominated by suspicion and dissection, The Entangled Page offers a refreshing paradigm shift. This groundbreaking book challenges the traditional "hermeneutics of suspicion" – the detective-like scrutiny of texts for hidden truths – and invites readers to embrace a more receptive, generative approach to literature. Drawing on thinkers like Paul Ricœur, Rita Felski, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Dr. Ridha Rouabhia explores how we can move from paranoid readings that uncover pathologies to reparative ones that foster creativity, attachment, and transformation. Structured in four innovative parts, the book delves into: The Methodology of Presence: Examining surface reading and affective labor through case studies like the somatic text. The Algorithmic Imagination: Investigating machine-assisted distant reading, the digital unconscious, and the "ghost in the prompt." The Non-Human Turn: Discussing vibrant matter, object agency, posthumanist narratology, and indigenous songlines. The Fluid Frontier: Tackling hydro-criticism, the aqueous archive, thalassopolitics, and climate grief. Culminating in a forward-looking conclusion on the "integrated reader" and the critique of postcritique, this work imagines a post-2020s literary landscape where texts are co-producers of meaning, not mere suspects. Dated prospectively to 2026, the preface serves as a heuristic for what literary studies could become – less about demystification and more about what texts make possible. Perfect for scholars, students, and enthusiasts of literary theory, critical theory, postcritique, and emerging fields like digital humanities and environmental criticism. Whether you're weary of symptomatic reading or curious about affective engagements with literature, The Entangled Page entangles method, matter, and machine to reopen avenues for discovery and plenitude.