Leitch argues for the use of poststructural theory in cultural criticism. He maintains that deconstruction remains crucial for a truly critical approach to cultural studies. Literary critics now frequently use sociological, historical, political, and institutional methods of inquiry. This turn toward "dis-course" and away from "literature" has led to a resurgence of cultural criticism, a mode of analysis revitalized and reformed by the arrival of "theory". Leitch illustrates the weak points of influential predecessors, showing how poststructuralism offers useful advances over reigning modes of critical inquiry. Leitch develops positions on key topics: social formations and cultural critique; authorship and intention; "poetic" discourse and the social text; literary genre and cultural convention; minority literatures and "general poetics"; textual interpretation and assessment; institutional theory and analysis; and Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies and poststructuralism. He draws on the work of Barthes, Deleuze, de Man, Derrida, Foucault, Jameson, Kristeva, Lentricchia, Lyotard, Said, and Scholes - whose work he does not hesitate to criticize.
