What is literary theory?

 Literary theory can be described as the application of ideas to literature. A set of tools which are useful not only for interpretation of literature, but also for interrogating much wider questions. Literary theory in fact consists of any ideas that can shape literary analysis. It is the process of looking outside the text for different meaning.

Criticism is the process of analysing and judging of literature, while theories are the tools to facilitate that interpretation. Indeed, literary theory fosters new avenues into the text. If the student has the passion for the ideas, there comes the best use of theory. It’s a unique way of looking at things; each school offers us a different and particular way to think about a literary text. It can give us a perspective on what a literary text is, on the issues it contains, and the way it is written.

 Literary theories are not all the same. Early theories, such as formalism and structuralism, are very engaged with the nature of language and, even more than this, with reading practices. Other theories, such as poststructuralism and postcolonial theory, often discuss literature directly but within the context of a wider range of concerns. Some literary theory, such as psychoanalytic and Marxist theory, is based in another discipline which does not often explicitly address literature. Thus, literary theory is about the application of all the possible ideas to literature.

Literary theory is, in essence, any ideas, whether directed towards literature or not, that can shape literary analysis. You will also find usages of the word ‘theory’ in other disciplines. For example, cultural theory is the theory that enables us to ask questions about culture, while film theory may or may not explicitly discuss film, but is regardless useful for its interpretation.

 Imagine you are standing in the centre of a circular room, with a whole set of doors laid out around you. You have the text in hand. And each doorway opens on to a new and illuminating field of knowledge that can change how you think about what you have read. You can open one door, or many of them. The choice is yours. Put the knowledge you gain together with your own interpretation, however, and you have a unique and potentially fascinating response.