Walter Benn Michaels

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Walter Benn Michaels (born 1948) is an American literary theorist and author whose areas of research include American literature (particularly 19th-century to 20th-century), critical theory, identity politics, and visual arts.

Known for challenging the "prevailing trends of postmodernist theory," Michaels has produced works connecting postmodernism, neoliberal capitalism, and socioeconomic inequality. Two of his best-known books are ''Our America: Nativism, Modernism and Pluralism'' (1995) and ''The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History'' (2004)—the latter being adopted from his 2001 essay of the same name.