ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors theorize the moment he defines a word, concept, or category, just as Karen Armstrong is a theorist when she asserts that "mythology is an art form that points beyond history to what is timeless in human existence, helping us to get behind the chaotic flux of random events, and glimpse the core of reality". The authors discuss theorists and critics as though they never cross paths. Theorists generate and interrogate the very standards author use to evaluate or judge a text. Literary and cultural theorists are engaged in the same activity, but instead of focusing on natural phenomena like gravity, evolution, and atoms, they concentrate on cultural practices, representations, and language. The practice of building on theorists who may be asking different, even competing questions, prevents us from placing these scholarly projects neatly under the same intellectual umbrella. The authors also present an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
