“ Reading a novel after reading semiotic theory was like jogging empty-handed after jogging with hand weights. What exquisite guilt she felt, wickedly enjoying narrative! Madeleine felt safe with a nine… Jeffrey Eugenides
“ To the jaded eye, all vampires seem alike, but they are wonderful in their versatility. Some come to life in moonlight, others are killed by the sun, some pierce with their eyes, others with fangs, so… Nina Auerbach
“ The truth is not that we need the critics in order to enjoy the authors, but that we need the authors in order to enjoy the critics. C.S. Lewis
“ When the critic has said everything in his power about a literary text, he has still said nothing; for the very existence of literature implies that it cannot be replaced by non-literature Tzvetan Todorov
“ A clever schoolboy's reaction to his reading is most naturally expressed by parody or imitation. C.S. Lewis
“ The ambition of much of today's literary theory seems to be to find ways to read literature without imagination. Charles Simic
“ Some have speculated that the way [Albert] Camus died made his theories on absurdity a self-fulfilling prophecy. Others would say it was the triumphant meaningful way he lived that allowed him to rise… Aberjhani
“ Punctuation was, it is sad to say, invented a very long time ago. Even more frustrating, it has remained with us ever since. Anne Elizabeth Moore
“ There is, in fact, no need to drag politics into literary theory: as with South African sport, it has been there from the beginning. I mean by the political no more than the way we organize our social… Terry Eagleton
“ Characters should be interchangeable as between one book and another. The entire corpus of existing literature should be regarded as a limbo from which discerning authors could draw their characters a… Flann O'Brien
“ Literature is like phosphorus: it shines with its maximum brilliance and the moment when it attempts to die. Roland Barthes
“ Favoring 'resolution' the way we do, it is hard for us men to write great love stories. Why?, because we want to tell too much. We aren’t satisfied unless at the end of the story the characters are ly… Roman Payne
“ Theories about world literature, of which fairy tale is a fundamental part, emphasize the porousness of borders, geographical and inguistic: no frontiercan keep a good story from roaming. It will trav… Marina Warner
“ Like ´Bluebeard´, the fairy tale of ´Snow White´does not record a single, appalling crime, but testifies to a structural and endemic conflict in society that was political and social as well as person… Marina Warner
“ Art is not religion, 'it doesn't even lead to religion.' But in the time of distress which is ours, the time when the gods are missing, the time of absence and exile, art is justified, for it is the i… Maurice Blanchot
“ Individuals often turn to poetry, not only to glean strength and perspective from the words of others, but to give birth to their own poetic voices and to hold history accountable for the catastrophes… Aberjhani
“ Your body expresses yesterday in what it wants today. If you think: yesterday I was, tomorrow I shall be, you are thinking: I have died a little. Be what you are becoming, without clinging to what you… Luce Irigaray
“ Even in the act of fleeing modern ideologies, however, literary theory reveals its often unconscious complicity with them, betraying its elitism, sexism or individualism in the very ‘aesthetic’ or ‘un… Terry Eagleton
“ The literary text seems like "a fortified medieval town –foreigners and outsiders are repelled, or allowed in only after rigorous checks, but within all is bustling life; exchange, mutual interdepende… Jeremy Hawthorn
