Our Lives in Literature

ABSTRACT The article traces the evolution of literary theory, beginning in the 1970s when it moved away from the New Criticism that saw the text as removed from the life of its readers toward Reader-Response Theory, where readers are encouraged to see themselves in what they read. I argue that this theory of reading leads to an awareness of how literature helps us fashion a coherent self. I use three examples – the Bible, Shakespeare, and certain nineteenth-century novels – to argue that great literature is great because it gives us the material we need to do this well.