The Crisis in Criticism

"This book is a statement of my views on a number of problems in literary theory and contemporary criticism. But it is also - as any theoretical study must be - a progress report, a record of inquiry that has not yet concluded. In a sense, a book on "theory" cannot really end. At a certain point, work on it ceases, even though one continues to think critically and skeptically about the problems - and the solutions - that the book contains." -- Preface. p. xi.