Re-thinking theory

Re-thinking theory offers a bold approach to literary studies. The book itself is explicitly theoretical and yet makes a searching critique of some of the modes, concepts and movements which compromise modern literary theory. Discussing key concepts such as ideology, signification and discourse, and analysing schools including that of F.R. Leavis, Althusserian Marxism, Derridean and Foucauldian poststructuralism and New Historicism, the authors argue that there are major deficiences in the conceptual foundations and the literary and political implications of contemporary literary theory.

These deficiencies are ascribed principally to three aspects of modern theoretical schools: the commitment to a non-referential view of language, the rejection of substantive accounts of the individual and a repudiation of moral and aesthetic evaluation. The 'alternative account' offered by Professors Freadman and Miller incorporates the values renounced by contemporary literary theory and places a central emphasis on ethical discourse.