Leitch argues for the use of poststructural theory in cultural criticism. He maintains that deconstruction remains crucial for a truly critical approach to cultural studies. Literary critics now frequently use sociological, historical, political, and institutional methods of inquiry. This turn toward "dis-course" and away from "literature" has led to a resurgence of cultural criticism, a mode of analysis revitalized and reformed by the arrival of "theory". Leitch illustrates the weak points of influential predecessors, showing how poststructuralism offers useful advances over reigning modes of critical inquiry. Leitch develops positions on key topics: social formations and cultural critique; authorship and intention; "poetic" discourse and the social text; literary genre and cultural convention; minority literatures and "general poetics"; textual interpretation and assessment; institutional theory and analysis; and Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies and poststructuralism. He draws on the work of Barthes, Deleuze, de Man, Derrida, Foucault, Jameson, Kristeva, Lentricchia, Lyotard, Said, and Scholes - whose work he does not hesitate to criticize.
- ISBN10 0231079710
- ISBN13 9780231079716
- Publish Date 1 August 1994 (first published 22 December 1992)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 15 January 2011
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Columbia University Press
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback (UK Trade)
- Pages 204
- Language English