Debating Texts

Critical theory is currently the most contentious area of debate among teachers, students, and readers of literature.

But despite the number of books published in this area, the degree of difficulty at which most are pitched, the range of reference they mobilise and the proliferation and elaboration of rapidly changing positions all serve to make the field a daunting prospect for even the most intellectually curious reader seeking a foothold.

This anthology presents examples from a broad range of the most important theoretical schools of this century, from liberal humanism to contemporary feminism, from Russian Formalism to Marxism and post-structuralism, and includes writings by F. R. Leavis, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Raymond Williams and Stanley Fish among others. The examples are arranged in seven self-contained sections, and each section is prefaced by a clear account of context and leading ideas and contains a guide to further reading. Three principles underlie the choice, organisation and exposition of the essays and extracts included: firstly, the desire to make central primary texts more easily and widely accessible; secondly, an awareness of the need for a connection between literary theory and the actual practice of criticism, which has prompted the choice within each section of an example of the close application of theoretical principles to a piece of writing; and thirdly, the aim of providing readers with a sense of the development of literary theory and alerting them to the grounds of contemporary arguments. The reader is encouraged through guides to further reading to move confidently and with heightened curiosity beyond the selection contained here.

Literary theory engages fundamental questions about our activities as readers of and commentators on that body of material we call literature. Above all, this book is about debate.

Rick Rylance studied at the universities of Leicester and Berkeley, California.
He subsequently taught for four years in the English Department of the University of Leicester, specialising in critical theory, and now teaches at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology.