What is literary theory?

Literary theory is the study of literary phenomena and the nature, laws and methods of literary works. The main literary theories are as follows:

Traditional literary theory: including ancient literary theory and modern literary theory, such as ancient Greek poetics and China's Wen Xin Diao Long.

Structuralist literary theory: emphasizing the structure of literary works and the meaning of language symbols, such as Russian scholar Bakhtin's structuralist theory.

Language and literature theory: emphasizes the function and function of language, such as the "new criticism" theory of American scholar Brooks.

Postmodern literary theory: emphasizing the diversity and fuzziness of literary works, such as the "deconstruction" theory of French scholar Derrida.

Psycholiterary theory: emphasizes the psychological relationship between literary works and readers, such as the "psychoanalysis" theory of Austrian scholar Freud.

Literary theory of cultural studies: emphasizing the relationship between literary works and social and cultural background, such as the cultural research theory of American scholar William Reid.

The above are the main literary theories, and each theory has its own specific research methods and perspectives, which have made important contributions to literary research.