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Re-Thinking Theory : A Critique of Contemporary Literary Theory and an Alternative Account
ReThinking Theory A Critique of Contemporary Literary Theory and an Alternative Account Author:Richard Freadman, Seumas Miller Re-thinking Theory offers a bold approach to literary studies, itself explicitly theoretical and yet making a searching critique of the modes, concepts and movements which comprise modern literary theory. Discussing key concepts such as ideology, signification and discourse, and analysing schools including that of F. R. Leavis, Althusserian Mar... more »xism, Derridean and Foucaultian poststructuralism, and New Historicism, the authors argue that there are major deficiencies 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.« less