Since the mid twentieth century, the rise of structuralist methodology in literary theory has created seismic shifts opening up the study of text to cultural study and assisting in the development of other theories such as poststructuralism, feminism and postcolonialism. Structuralism challenged the idea of a politically detached study of text, epitomised in the then dominant new/practical criticism approaches. It reinforced the challenge to the tradition of the Leavisite canon already under attack with feminist writers, and encouraged the development of other critical theories which have radically influenced the study of literature today. Traditional literary criticism would be seen as inadequate for many later thinkers such as Eagleton (cited in Pope, 2002, p. 87) who would call it a "recipe for political inertia."

This essay will give a brief history of the development of literary theory in order to show...