Introduction: Theory and Practice
Introduction: Theory and Practice

Summary/Abstract: It is my honour to be a guest editor of a special issue on theory and practice, with gratitude to Jüri Talvet and Katre Talviste at Interlitteraria. The critical method and the craft of close reading or practical criticism, theory and practice, are ancient kinds of writing in Europe and elsewhere. From the 1950s, literary criticism and theory gained independence from literary studies and theorists like Northrop Frye, Jacques Derrida and Julia Kristeva helped to make theory into something related to literature but not subservient to practical criticism or the creation of literature, something independent in some ways or valued in and of itself. Marshall McLuhan and Roland Barthes helped to develop theories of media and culture that may have grown out of literary studies but that branched out. [...]

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