Preface

The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory (YWCCT) is a companion to The Year’s Work in English Studies (YWES). Like that journal, it is owned by the English Association and provides a narrative bibliography of books and articles published in the field. The origins of YWCCT lie in the introduction of a separate chapter devoted to literary theory in volume 62 of YWES in 1981. The growth of critical and cultural theory led to the appearance of YWCCT as a distinct entity thirteen years later. The journal continues to evolve as the ever-transforming field of theory is remade and renewed by scholars from an array of disciplines. The present volume was edited by Christina Lupton (Copenhagen University) and Emma Mason (University of Warwick). The following sections address work published in 2018—with some brief overlap into adjacent years where relevant—under the following headings: Affect Theory; Animal Studies; Digital Humanities; Disability Studies; Ecocriticism; Economic Criticism; Feminisms; Film Theory; Modern European Philosophy; Performance, Theatre, Drama; Poetics; Popular Culture; Postcolonial Theory; Psychoanalysis; Queer Theory; Science and Medicine; Theory on Theory; and Visual Culture. The Media chapter has been updated as Book and Media Theory to reflect changes in the field; our chapters on Religion and Representation and Black Critical and Cultural Theory will return in volume 28 in 2020 under the care of new contributors.