When literary critics talk about literary theory, they are referring to a critical analytic that is aware of itself as a methodology and that is capable of self-reflexively calling its own assumptions into question. Theory has its roots in the methodological study of interpretation that goes back at least as far as Aristotle’s treatise “Of Interpretation,” though unquestionably this was hardly its inception. Interpretation theory asks the question of how we can know the difference between a true and a false interpretation, a reading that is good from one that is bad. How do we know we are construing meanings accurately? What are the limits of inferring meanings or developing textual implications? How do we know that a sentence is to be taken ironically and not straightforwardly? What if our interpretation is not authorized by the writer who has maintained a very different interpretation? And what if our interpretation uses analytical tools not known to the authors or their contemporaries? Although these are very basic questions of method, the fact is that the history of criticism and theory has not decided them once and for all.

This book can be used in two ways, (i) as a compendium of major issues and developments in literary criticism and theory that can be consulted much as one consults an encyclopedia, and (ii) as a companion to major issues in literary criticism and theory that can be read linearly in terms of units or areas. Chapter 1 is a comprehensive overview of criticism basics and those areas and trends in criticism and theory that are most relevant for students of literature today. Readers are encouraged to read it straight through from beginning to end, if what they are seeking is a reliable introduction to critical practice and the state of criticism and theory right now. That said, its sections can be read in any order, should one be interested mainly in consulting individual topics.

Chapters 2, 3, and 4 stress mainly “critical” tools that concern narrative, poetics, and performance, respectively. Sections in these chapters provide readers with concepts, methods, and analytics that critics have found useful for conducting analyses of each genre. Care has been taken to include some avant garde literature in order to extend our literary curriculum somewhat so that it can embrace a few works that are more rather than less difficult to interpret.

Chapters 5 and 6 stress mainly “theoretical” tools that address texts as systems and social theory, respectively. Chapter 5 concerns questions of redefining structure or system in ways that have required a paradigm shift (a Corpernican Revolution, if you will) in the humanities with respect to how we analyze not only literature, but culture, history, economics, the social, and much else. Given that texts are signifying systems, how we analyze them depends upon what kind of system we imagine them to be and whether, from various theoretical perspectives, these systems are viable. Chapter 6 treats fundamentals in social theory that are rarely taught explicitly in language and literature departments but that need to be mastered if one expects to be successful in writing sociological literary criticism, something that has become quite dominant in some language and literature departments. The general sociological topics under discussion are ways of theorizing (i) the public sphere, (ii) ideology, (iii) power, and (iv) the social relation. These topics cover a very wide range of issues, among them, hegemony, alterity politics, theories of community, social contract thinking, and much else. To this material one should add the lengthy section in Chapter 1 on the theory of social constructedness (1.6), which is developed there because it is so absolutely central to literary studies at the present time. In this section the reader will also find sub-sections on race studies, ethnic studies, global studies, and other sub-fields in social theory relevant to the languages and literatures.

Care has been taken to include a wide array of well known literary examples drawn from all historical periods. What is called practical criticism, the application of critical theory to specific texts, is a major feature of this book and it therefore may serve as a useful companion within courses in which an array of texts are being surveyed. Some emphasis has been placed on literature written before 1800, and readers will notice that attention has been paid to John Milton, whose work has the function of a guiding thread that runs through various parts of the book. Milton is ideal for my purposes, if only because Milton’s premise of rewriting the Adam and Eve story in the epic poem, Paradise Lost, is easy to grasp from the perspective of plot; because Milton is such a major practitioner of the art of literature and is therefore a cornucopia of wonderful literary examples; and because he wrote in a way that makes it easy to detach bits and pieces of his work for close examination. Also, over the past decade Milton has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity among readers, which suggests that he may be of intrinsic interest generally.

With respect to literature written after 1800, and much of that is, in fact, also covered, I have made some effort at points to emphasize work that is avant garde in nature. There are two reasons for this. One is that there has been a major renascence in avant garde literary writing in both Great Britain and the United States, much of it in the area of poetry, but much of it in narrative and performance writing, as well, and this by now vast literature has been generally underrepresented in most university curricula. So in a text such as this one, some exposure to this new work is in order. Given that this sort of work is difficult to interpret and requires tools of analysis that are non-traditional, it is useful to observe how innovations in critical theory can be used to address works that people by and large have difficulty accessing, something that speaks to the practicality of such critical analysis.

Readers may notice that this toolkit differs from many introductions to critical theory in that it includes a section on performance that covers not only the emergent field of performance studies but aspects of traditional theatre and some of the more interdisciplinary aspects of performance, some of it based in the visual arts. Often overlooked in language and literature and even theatre departments is the immense work in performance that has been underway since the 1960s, particularly in New York City, where directors like Richard Foreman and groups like the Wooster Group have been producing breakthrough theatre for many decades. Furthermore, there has been much innovative work in the area known as performance art, which is often very language based, and therefore deserves acknowledgment. Then, too, many courses that include drama pay little or no attention to the craft of acting, which is a deficiency that is addressed in this chapter, as well.

Lastly, I need to comment on why so much of the theory in this toolkit is indebted to European developments, and particularly those that have occurred in France from the 1960s onwards. For the history of the Anglo-American reception of so-called French theory, readers may eventually want to consult my book, The Theory Mess (2001), which talks about the rather messy state of affairs that resulted when so-called high theory from Europe began to be disseminated in Great Britain and the United States. Problematic about the influx of Continental theory was (i) that it required a sophisticated education in types of philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, and Marxism that hadn’t been much taught in Anglo-American universities, (ii) that it called into question less sophisticated work that had gained respect in the UK and US, something that produced resentment and backlash, and (3) that when Continental theory arrived from abroad, it did so as a confusing and unmanageable torrent of vast corpora by major figures (Georges Bataille, Jacques Lacan, Emmanuel Levinas, etc.) and movements (The Frankfurt School, Hermeneutics, Structuralism, Phenomenology, Tel Quel, Semiotics, etc.). Of course, the question was whether this vast amount of critical theory coming from abroad could or even would be assimilated and instituted. That The Literary Theory Toolkit is still attempting that assimilating and instituting tells us something about the success or failure of past efforts, though it also speaks to the fact that Continental developments in criticism and theory form a major watershed in the intellectual life of the West. Just because we are in a new millennium we shouldn’t imagine that suddenly everything we learned about critical theory in the late twentieth century doesn’t count and can be ignored. In fact, much of what was developed then has as yet to be thought through and applied. In other words, that tool bag is much bigger and far more interesting than many people suspect, provided one puts in the effort of rummaging around and finding the tools.

I am grateful to: Llewellyn Publishers for permission to print a modified version of “The Scale of the Number Four” table in Three Books on Occult Philosophy by Henry Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim, trans. J. Freake, edited and annotated by Donald Tyson. St. Paul, MN. Llewellyn Publishers, 2005; Anne Tardos, Executor of Jackson Mac Low’s estate, for granting permission to reproduce Jackson Mac Low, “People Swamp,” in its entirety; Laura Mullen for permission to quote at length from her poem, “Torch Song (Prose Is a Prose Is a Prose)”; to Jaime Davidovich for permission to reproduce a video still from “The Live! Show”; and, finally, to Hans Breder of the Hans Breder Foundation for permission to reproduce stills of “My TV Dictionary,” “Boxed In,” and of the performance artists Karen Finley and Coco Fusco with Nao Bustamante.