American universities Quote by Susan Sontag

“The 1980s witnessed radical advances in the theorisation of the study of literature in the universities. It had begun in France in the 1960s…

— Geoffrey Harvey

In the 1970s colleges were under the reign of a very odd form of literary theory called deconstruction or post-structuralism.

— Heather Mac Donald

“Post-structuralism is a reaction to structuralism and works against seeing language as a stable, closed system. It is a shift from seeing the poem…

— E. Smith Sleigh

The critical method which denies literary modernity would appear -- and even, in certain respects, would be -- the most modern of critical movements.

— Paul de Man

Post-structuralism is among other things a kind of theoretical hangover from the failed uprising of ‘68, a way of keeping the revolution warm at…

— Terry Eagleton

The critical principle demanded an examination, for instance, of the contribution of different periods, thus to some extent embarking on historical linguistics.

— Ferdinand de Saussure

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

— Terry Eagleton

I do not know whether to be delighted or outraged by the fact that Literary Theory: An Introduction was the subject of a study…

— Terry Eagleton

I used to teach at Yale, which was at one time a center of postmodernist literary theory. Derrida was there. Paul de Man was…

— Harry Frankfurt

If you spend your life with academics, when you step outside, you realise there is this huge general readership that is almost impossible to…

— Tom Paulin

The revolutionary and critical thinker is in a certain way always outside of his society while of course he is at the same time…

— Erich Fromm

There are places in the world where it's easier than in the US to be a person who produces theory and not require the…

— Joshua Clover