Arcane Quote by Nancy Pearcey

“Theory sometimes seems to me a way of taking revenge on literature—the critic masters the text and rewrites it in his own image, instead…

— Adam Kirsch

I think literary theory satisfied a deep love I have for big, encompassing narratives about the world and how it works - which are…

— Jennifer Egan

I dislike literary jargon and never use it. Criticism has only one function and that is to help readers read and understand literature. It…

— Anne Stevenson

Any attempt to define literary theory in terms of a distinctive method is doomed to failure.

— Terry Eagleton

There's this idea that if you want to write, you shouldn't study literature because then you're dissecting what you love, and you should keep…

— Elif Batuman

The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of…

— Lionel Trilling

We do literature a real disservice if we reduce it to knowledge or to use, to a problem to be solved. If literature solves…

— Marjorie Garber

Language and, presumably, literature are more ancient and inevitable, more durable than any form of social organization. The revulsion, irony, or indifference often expressed…

— Joseph Brodsky

Really, when I think it over, literature has only one excuse for existing; it saves the person who makes it from the disgustingness of…

— Joris-Karl Huysmans

Literature matters so much to me I can hardly stand it.

— David Shields

“it is the very nature of the humanities, and in particular the study of literature, to help remind thoughtful people of the ambiguities and…

— Gregory Wolfe

“To a degree, literary taste is a subjective matter. One can admire a work of fiction without particularly enjoying it; one can dislike a…

— Claire Messud