What is literary theory? Is there a relationship between literature and culture? In fact, what is literature...and does it matter? These are the kinds of questions Jonathan Culler addresses, and he illuminates a subject often perceived as impenetrable. In addition to outlining the ideas behind various schools (including deconstruction, semiotics, structuralism, and post-colonialism), he offers insights into theories about the nature of language, meaning, interpretation, poetics, rhetoric, narrative, and readership.