Issue 190, October 2025 – New Views From China – Postgraduate Perspectives From Chengdu

This special issue is a product of over a decade of collaboration between Thesis Eleven and Sichuan University’s College of Literature and Journalism. The issue provides a platform for emerging Chengdu scholars and developed around the idea that this younger generation of Masters students might consider writing less directly in their immediate fields of research and more in terms of general and personal interest. It offers a window into some of the concerns and patterns of thinking of the next generation and the worlds that they inhabit, where tradition and modernity intersect.

Conference Report: In Memory of Zygmunt Bauman, Sichuan University 2024

by Eric Ferris

Previously honoring Agnes Heller and George Markus, the conference was part of an ongoing, larger Chinese federal research project on aesthetics which, in part, is a canopy for critical theory and has to date resulted in serious scholarship on Eastern European Marxist thinkers by Chinese intellectuals. Co-sponsored by Thesis Eleven, The Research Center for Marxist Theory of Literature in the College of Literature and Journalism at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, and the Marxist Aesthetics Committee of the Chinese Association of Aesthetics, the conference not only reflected Bauman’s global influence, it was also an example of how his influence continues to grow.

Issue 186, February 2025 – Critical Theory, Aesthetics and Speculative Philosophy: A Special Edition on the Thought of Gillian Rose

This special edition of Thesis Eleven focuses on the thought of British philosopher and critical theorist Gillian Rose. With contributions focusing on Rose’s political thought, her literary and aesthetic philosophy, and her engagement with Hegel, this edition hopes to further establish Rose’s work as part of the canon of late 20th century philosophy. Additionally, this issue also contains an interview with New School critical theorist Jay Bernstein, who was close friends with Rose, as well her previously unpublished lecture, “Does Marx Have a Method?”

On Magical Nominalism: An Interview with Martin Jay

by Howard Prosser

This interview with Martin Jay took place in January 2025. The conversation focuses on the conceptual elements of his book Magical Nominalism: The Historical Event, Aesthetic Reenchantment, and the Photograph (2025). The discussion traces the place of nominalism within philosophy and in connection to Critical Theory, history, and art.