A Study Of The Cultural Turn In Western Literary Theory In The Twentieth Century

This thesis is a study of the cultural turn in western literary theory in the twentieth century. In the development of western literary theory, the limitation of interior study becomes more and more evident. At the same time, Marxism, Feminist Criticism and Post-colonialism become flourishing. These two factors make literary theory open to the culture. This thesis can be divided into five parts. The first part presents us the inevitability of the cultural turn. In the following three parts, we can see the contribution that Marxism, Feminist Criticism and Post-colonialism do to the cultural turn in the twentieth century. By Marxism, "class" becomes very important theme in contemporary literary theory. By Feminist Criticism, "gender" also becomes crucial theme. Similarly, by Post-colonialism, "race" turns to be one of the main themes in contemporary literary theory, In the last part, we can know the relationship between them three. Furthermore, this part summarizes the connection between that three literary theory genre and the culture turn.