Many introductions to literary theory describe existing "schools" of criticism. Theory is treated as a set of competing "approaches," each with its own theoretical positions and commitments.
However, the theoretical movements that the introductions recognize - such as structuralism, deconstruction, feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and new historicism - have many common elements among them.
For this very reason, many refer to "theory" rather than just individual theories. For a preliminary introduction to theory, it is better to examine common issues and concerns rather than to study the various theoretical schools.
It is preferable to examine those significant points of discussion that do not place one "school" in opposition to another but instead seem to indicate clear differences among the movements.
[Excerpt from the text of the preface]
