Literary theory has not yet found its place in literary history. Many Anglo-Americans are skeptical about its place in literary transactions because literary theory sometimes places actual readers and spectators of literary events in the background. The solution may not lie in integrating literary theory into literary history…. [The] writings of Roland Barthes encourage the beginnings of … a case for theory which encompasses both literary and historical texts. Barthes especially encourages exploration into a theory of reading with its own historicity with his writings on history and within the historical moment of reading. His kind of theory is one which engages readers and spectators of the reading transactions by identifying theory as a reflective and reflexive activity which generates self-awareness in those participating in the reading activity in order to know more about the nature of readers and reading and to change these into more creative persons and endeavors. Barthes had proposed that Orpheus become "the eponymous hero" for such a literary theory of reading because it was Orpheus who looked back upon Eurydice and destroyed his beloved in much the same manner that theoreticians of reading look back upon their reading to destroy the mechanical gaze.
Re-reading can learn much by imitating the Orphic look which destroys the object of its love. By examining the effects of such visions, we can begin to understand how and what kind of transformations occur in this activity we call reading. The obvious creativity of the readings by Roland Barthes reminds us that our own daily readings are likewise creative transformations which must be further understood. A theory of reading may give us the opportunity to explore that understanding. Some feel that they are merely mesmerized by the haunting beauty of those readings signed by "RB" so that: "The RB precludes your idea from being developed." However, the myth of Orpheus returns as a model to dare us to re-examine the object of love and to destroy that mesmerizing presence in favor of developing and transforming the ideas inspired by reading RB. (pp. 229-30)
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