by Jonathan Culler

isbn: 019285318X
subject: Nonfiction, Books
finished: 6/1/2000

Literary theory is a pretty imposing topic, and it's especially imposing to people like myself who don't have a liberal arts education. So, I was really happy to find Culler's introduction to literary theory. Rather than hiding behind a taxonomy of the various schools of thought, he discusses and attempts to answer some difficult questions: What is theory? What is literature? Why might we care about the answers to these questions? My take on this book is that Culler has successfully managed to convey some of the difficult and interesting challenges of theory to uninitiated readers without dumbing down the subject too much. Recommended.