Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (review)

The challenges faced by anyone attempting to write a short, accessible introduction to contemporary literary theory are considerable. Increasingly, it is true, university and other presses send guides, anthologies, handbooks, and other reader-friendly instructional materials to those of us who teach basic, intermediate, and advanced courses in critical theory. This proliferation of teaching aids stems, no doubt, from an infusion of “theory” into undergraduate curricula in departments of English and foreign languages. Critical theory has, over the past fifteen years or so, been transformed from pure into applied research; it is no longer something only trained professionals do, but rather a set of identifiable and teachable skills passed on to undergraduates who do not necessarily have an interest in becoming trained professionals themselves. Indeed, the outpouring of guides to and handbooks for literary theory—a trend epitomized, perhaps, by the soon-to-be-published Norton anthology of literary theory—suggests that theory is simply part of what most teachers of literature now teach. It has long since stopped being an esoteric metalanguage used by a small band of elite literary scholars writing recondite articles and books for one another. Yet for all that, it is still no easy matter to write a synoptic overview of the field. Or rather, it is extraordinarily difficult to synopsize key literary-theoretical issues without dumbing them down—and thereby undermining the careful, patient approach to reading and interpretation that is one of the chief legacies of theory itself. Coming in at just under 150 pages, Jonathan Culler’s Literary Theory meets this difficult challenge, discussing the problems and potentials of literary theory in a way that is as engaging as it is accurate, as suggestive as it is concise.