This special issue of "differences" celebrates the work of the contemporary feminist literary critic and theorist, Barbara Johnson, whose work has been revolutionary in foregrounding concepts of 'difference'. Johnson's is a unique method of literary reading in which literature becomes, again in her words, 'a mode of cultural work, the work of giving-to-read those impossible contradictions that cannot yet be spoken'.The contributors to this issue recognize that one of Johnson's primary gifts to literary studies is her ability to teach theoretical insights, not in a pedagogically prescriptive or didactic way, but through her exquisitely close readings of texts that illustrate the force of theory and language in practice. The first half of the issue is comprised of essays in which scholars influenced by Johnson offer close readings of texts - ranging from Sandra Cisneros' "Carmelo" to Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever" to George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion". Each of the remaining essays is marked by the intimate voice of its author offering a reflective tribute to Johnson's thought and teaching. The contributors are: Lauren Berlant, Rachel Bowlby, Bill Brown, Mary Wilson Carpenter, Pamela Caughie, Lee Edelman, Jane Gallop, Bill Johnson Gonzalez, Deborah Jenson Lili Porten, Avital Ronell and Mary Helen Washington.