The power of tautology : the roots of literary theory

Much literary theory is based on tautological reasoning, and circular definitions are often the springboard to theorizing about causal connections. Five chapters of this book pursue this argument by studying dominant theoretical models. The culminating point of theorizing through tautologies is reached finally in the poststructuralist theories of Lacan and Derrida, antitheoretical theorists who define literature as the play of linguistic difference.