Literary Theory as Critical Practice: A Graduate Guide to Questions, Methods, and Applications

This book organises literary theory around the critical questions that drive scholarly inquiry rather than the historical emergence of theoretical schools. Every theoretical approach, from Russian formalism to computational literary studies, attempts to answer fundamental questions about how literature works:

·         How do texts create meaning?

·         How do they reflect and shape social power relations?

·         How do they construct and challenge categories of identity?

·         How do they engage with their historical contexts?

By organising our exploration around these questions rather than around the biography of theoretical movements, we can better understand how different approaches complement, compete with, and build upon each other.