Professors of French writing books about cigarettes or Americans' obsession with fat; Shakespearins analysing bisexuality; experts on realism working on serial killers. What's going on?

What's happening here is 'cultural studies', a major activity in the humanities in the 1990s. Some literature professors may have turned away from Milton to Madonna, from Shakespeare to soap operas, abandoning the study of literature altogether. How does this relate to literary theory?

Esse texto acima é a introdução do capítulo 3 de Literary Theory, a Very Short Introduction de Jonathan Culler. Contrário do que parece, nesse capítulo Culler não vai contra os estudos culturais, mas sim tenta explicá-los enfatizando as diferenças entre os estetas e os que procuram as vozes de grupos marginalizados. Ótima leitura.