'''Literary theory''' is the [[theory]] (or the [[philosophy]]) of the interpretation of [[literature]] and [[literary criticism]]. Its history begins with classical Greek [[poetics]] and [[rhetoric]] and includes, since the [[18th century]], [[aesthetics]] and [[hermeneutics]]. In the [[20th century]], "theory" has become an umbrella term for a variety of scholarly approaches to reading texts, most of which are informed by various strands of [[Continental philosophy]]. | '''Literary theory''' is the [[theory]] (or the [[philosophy]]) of the interpretation of [[literature]] and [[literary criticism]]. Its history begins with classical Greek [[poetics]] and [[rhetoric]] and includes, since the [[18th century]], [[aesthetics]] and [[hermeneutics]]. In the [[20th century]], "theory" has become an umbrella term for a variety of scholarly approaches to reading texts, most of which are informed by various strands of [[Continental philosophy]]. |