Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers a practice which is involved in all reading, yet is rarely the explicit subject of literary theory. It describes that to compare literature does mean something, that all literary criticism is comparative in a broad sense whereas much criticism called comparative is not comparative in the strictest sense, and that an analysis of these distinct senses can contribute to several debates in literary criticism. The book examines other studies which draw, and advocate drawing, meta-critical conclusions from the intensive close reading of literary texts, including Vladimir E. Alexandrov's 2004Limits to Interpretation, K. M. Newton's 1986In Defence of Literary Interpretation: Theory and Practice, and John Bayley's 1960The Characters of Love. It explores its combination of meta-criticism with close critical attention to Anna Karenina, which in Alexandrov's case furnishes a case study for the neo-formalist, quasi-structuralist approach.