What is the relationship between theory and practice in the creative arts today? In Critical Practice, Martin McQuillan offers a critical interrogation of the idea of practice-led research. He goes beyond the recent vocabulary of research management to consider the more interesting question of the emergence of a cultural space in which philosophy, theory, history and practice are becoming indistinguishable.

McQuillan considers the work of a number of writers and thinkers who cross the divide between theoretical and creative practice, including Alain Badiou and Terry Eagleton, and the longer tradition of 'theory-writing' that runs through the work of Hélène Cixous, Roland Barthes and Louis Althusser. His aim is to elucidate the contemporary ramifications of a relationship that has been contested throughout the long history of philosophy, from Plato's dialogues to Derrida's 'Envois'.