Thinking about literary thought
Thinking about literary thought

Summary/Abstract: Literary theory has aroused much dismissal, a good deal of infatuation, and a growing number of misunderstandings. Some declare it “theoretical terrorism,” while others try to restore in it the “common sense” of a “reading ego” trying to become a “popular ego,” and try to convince themselves that “nothing interesting has been written in the last 20 years.” To these rather restrained opinions, one must add the unremitting efforts of the media but also of academia — these powers and institutions are decidedly united — who aim to ridicule and discredit for ever more literary theory’s encroachment, or attempted encroachment, of its authority on literature. It may seem paradoxical that such a sparing, abstract, or even, as they say, insignificant activity should elicit such an... eroticization. Why so much passion for such an elusive object? We must look back to the beginnings of theoretical thought in the area of arts and literature, in order to attempt to uncover the reasons for this apparent anomaly.

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