Besbes (English language and literature, U. of Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates) seeks to revitalize and rehabilitate literary theory from the skepticism that has fastened to the discipline over the past few years. He starts by pointing out that most of the anti-theory literature criticizes not the intellectual content of theory but its institutional standing and excesses made in its name. Looking at the analysis of poetry and of drama in turn, he considers the dominant theories, among them deconstructuralism, feminism, the semiotic approach, new historicism, Marxist, and reader-response theories. Brown Walker Press is a division of Dissertation.com and Universal Publishers (Boca Raton, Florida). Annotation 2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
