Postcritique, Critique, Precritique: A Personal View.

The discipline of literary studies finds itself in a nebulous zone that has been dubbed "postcritique". The term recognises that the age of critique (for forty years the dominant paradigm within "literary theory") is over. Teachers and researchers appear somewhat divided as to how to proceed. This article suggests that the answer lies in a return to "precritique"—not an era in time but a position created by review of the logical misstep that made possible the application of theory to the practice of literary criticism in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]