TY - BOOK ID - 77867694 TI - Theoretical inquiry PY - 2004 SN - 1281730572 9786611730574 0300129815 9780300129816 9781281730572 030010166X 9780300101669 PB - New Haven DB - UniCat KW - Philology. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77867694 AB - In the aftermath of debate about the death of literary theory, Austin E. Quigley asks whether theory has failed us or we have failed literary theory. Theory can thrive, he argues, only if we understand how it can be strategically deployed to reveal what it does not presuppose. This involves the repositioning of theoretical inquiry relative to historical and critical inquiry and the repositioning of theories relative to each other. What follows is a thought-provoking reexamination of the controversial claims of pluralism in literary studies. The book explores the related roles of literary history, criticism, and theory by tracing the fascinating history of linguistics as an intellectual problem in the twentieth century. Quigley's approach clarifies the pluralistic nature of literary inquiry, the viability and life cycles of theories, the controversial status of canonicity, and the polemical nature of the culture wars by positioning them all in the context of recurring debates about language that have their earliest exemplifications in classical times. ER -