ABSTRACT
In some ways, the current quarrel over whether to theorize or not to theorize in the teaching of literature rests on a false premise. For any teacher of literature is unavoidably a literary theorist. Whatever a teacher says about a literary work, or leaves unsaid, presupposes a theory-of what literature is or can be, of what literary works are worth teaching and why, of how these works should be read and which of their aspects are most worth being noticed and pointed out. Even the most seemingly intuitive encounter with a literary text (or any other text) is, as we have learned to say, already theory-laden. There is no such thing as "just reading" a text, transparently, in a noncontextual vacuum, for there is no reading that does not bring to bear a certain context, interpret from a certain angle or set of interests, and thus throw one set of questions into relief while leaving others unasked.
