In the section entitled "What is Literary Theory?" in Contemporary Literary Criticism, the authors present five essays dealing with literary theory. The first two essays discuss the grounds of theory while the others discuss the historical activity of theory. In their discussions of theory, the critics examine different definitions of theory and literature and different methods of reading.
             In "The Resistance to Theory," Paul de Man acknowledges the "impossibility" of defining literary theory. However, he gives a notion of theory when he explains that literary theory" can be said to come into being when the approach to literary texts is no longer based on non-linguistic, that is to say historical and aesthetic considerations." He then poses the question of why literary theory provokes such strong resistance. He explains that the resistance to theory is a resistance to the use of language about language (similar to Barthe's "discourse upon a discourse). This resistance to language is due to the uncertainty and hence unreliability of language. He then concludes that nothing "can overcome the resistance to theory since theory is itself this resistance" and the language it speaks is the language of resistance.
             J. Hillis Miller also discusses the grounds of theory by proposing four modes of rationalizing or accounting for the irrational or unaccountable that a good reader should look for in any literary work. These are society, psychology, language, and ontology. However, the process he is calling for is neither "pure theory" nor a series of explications. It is critique which discriminates and tests out the medium between theory and practice.
             In her essay, "The Race for Theory," Barbara Christian offers a different perspective on literary theory. She downplays "theoretical discourse" and gives precedence and primacy to the literary experienc...