SOURCE: Widdowson, Peter. “Hardy and Critical Theory.” In The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy, edited by Dale Kramer, pp. 73-92. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

In the following essay, Widdowson presents an overview of critical theory on Hardy, especially in criticism written since the 1960s.

Essay titles are an attempt to say much in little, at once synoptic shorthand for the work which follows and for the whole area of intellectual enquiry to which it alludes. As such, they are susceptible to ambiguity and imprecision, and the title of the present essay is no exception. What is meant, we might ask, by “Critical Theory,” and is it synonymous with that other cognate phrase—“Literary Theory”? While the commonly made slippage between the terms demands urgent attention, it is way beyond the scope of an essay such as this. Let me clear the ground, therefore, by simply stating that...