[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-301119-105":59,"doc-detail-301119-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","literary-theory-the-complete-guide","Literary Theory - The Complete Guide","","Literary Theory: The Complete Guide introduces the cultural and cognitive importance of literature and frames literary theory as hypotheses explaining what literature is, how it differs from other writing, and how it functions in cultural contexts. The introduction connects reading fiction to empathy and neural activity and then outlines the long Western tradition of literary theory, beginning with Greek foundations. It discusses mimetic approaches from Plato and Aristotle and motivates later critical schools through the evolution of these core ideas.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literary-theory-the-complete-guide/301119/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/literary-theory-the-complete-guide/301119.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Ezra","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-09-19",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",24,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What is literary theory according to the guide’s introduction?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"Literary theory is an explanation or idea about what “literature” is, how it differs from other kinds of writing, and how it functions within cultural contexts. The guide presents literary theories as conjectures or hypotheses about these differences.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"Why does the guide argue reading literature matters?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"The guide connects reading literature to the ability to identify with others and to model human interaction. It also cites cognitive neuroscience findings that associate reading literary fiction with brain activity correlated to affect and empathy.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"How do Plato and Aristotle differ in their view of imitation (mimesis)?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"Plato treated the natural world as a flawed copy of ideal forms and therefore saw poetry as a copy of a copy, leading him to ban poets. Aristotle accepted imitation as a way for art to add meaning for audiences and help them understand the real world better.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},301119,1790561609,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":145,"read_time":146},1099514068035,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Chapter Outline  \nLiterary Theory  \nALSO AVAILABLE FROM BLOOMSBURY  \nKey Terms in Literary Theory, Mary Klages Literary Criticism in the 21st Century: Theory Renaissance, Vincent B. Leitch Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed, Mary Klages  \nLiterary Theory  \nThe Complete Guide  \nMary Klages  \nBloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc  \nLONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY  \nBloomsbury Academic  \nAn imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc  \n50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway  \nLondon New York  \nWC1B 3DP NY 10018  \nUK USA  \n[www.bloomsbury.com](www.bloomsbury.com)  \nBLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc  \nFirst published 2017  \n© Mary Klages, 2017  \nMary Klages has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.  \nAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.  \nNo responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.  \nBritish Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data  \nA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.  \nISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-9275-0  \nPB: 978-1-4725-9274-3  \nePDF: 978-1-4725-9277-4  \nePub: 978-1-4725-9276-7  \nLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data  \nA catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.  \nCover design: David A. Gee  \nTypeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain  \nContents  \nIntroduction: Humanist Literary Theory 1  \n1 Structuralism 7  \n2 Deconstruction 23  \n3 Psychoanalysis 37  \n4 Feminist Theories 63  \n5 Queer Theories 79  \n6 Ideology and Discourse 91  \n7 Race and Postcolonialism 117  \n8 Ecocriticism 141  \n9 Postmodernism 153  \n10 Biographies 167  \n11 Terms 199  \nIndex 283  \nIntroduction:  \nHumanist Literary Theory  \nEven though I am an English professor, I recently read an article in the prestigious journal Science. It was about research being done in cognitive neuroscience, mapping which areas of the brain process what kinds of information. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers examined which neural pathways fired as volunteers read a variety of texts. When engaged with literary fiction (i.e., not popular romance or nonfiction), readers’ brains showed greatest activity in the areas that are correlated to affect—to empathy, the ability to understand other people’s emotions. Literature “lights up” the same parts of the brain that positive humans social interactions do.  \nThese researchers have proven something that literary scholars have known forever: that reading literature helps you learn to identify with other people and that literature can be a fundamental mechanism for modeling forms of human interaction.  \nWhy is reading literature important? You might want to think back to all the reasons you’ve been told that reading good literature is important. It opens doors to other worlds; it gives us access to places, events, and people we could never meet in person; it expands our minds with new ideas and new perspectives. Great literature withstands the test of time, so that something written centuries ago still speaks to us as fresh and relevant; great literature allows us to converse with the greatest minds of Western civilization.  \nThat is the essence of literary theory: to examine and explain why the category “literature” has enduring cultural importance, and to interrogate the forces that manipulate how we describe that importance.  \nLiterary theory, in the broadest sense, is an explanation or idea about what “literature” is, how “literature” is different from other kinds o","cbCaiftkGGGORbN4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiftkGGGORbN4","pdf",2492549,297,"English","# Introduction: Humanist Literary Theory\n## Why is reading literature important?\n## Literary theory as explanation of “literature”\n## Greek foundations: Plato and Aristotle\n# 1 Structuralism\n# 2 Deconstruction\n# 3 Psychoanalysis\n# 4 Feminist Theories\n# 5 Queer Theories","[{\"question\":\"What is literary theory according to the guide’s introduction?\",\"answer\":\"Literary theory is an explanation or idea about what “literature” is, how it differs from other kinds of writing, and how it functions within cultural contexts. The guide presents literary theories as conjectures or hypotheses about these differences.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the guide argue reading literature matters?\",\"answer\":\"The guide connects reading literature to the ability to identify with others and to model human interaction. It also cites cognitive neuroscience findings that associate reading literary fiction with brain activity correlated to affect and empathy.\"},{\"question\":\"How do Plato and Aristotle differ in their view of imitation (mimesis)?\",\"answer\":\"Plato treated the natural world as a flawed copy of ideal forms and therefore saw poetry as a copy of a copy, leading him to ban poets. Aristotle accepted imitation as a way for art to add meaning for audiences and help them understand the real world better.\"}]","Literary Theory - The Complete Guide | PDF",1789779336,457]