What was literary theory in the Middle Ages? What was literary criticism? How did medieval scholars record their interpretations of texts? What forms did those interpretations take? And how do the forms of medieval literary criticism contribute to the shape of medieval literary theory? By teasing out answers to these questions from a series of examples of medieval (chiefly twelfth-century) commentary on classical literature, this chapter offers an introduction to the study of literary texts, its norms, assumptions, sources and priorities in the Latin Middle Ages. It concludes with an overview of the volume as a whole, focusing on how the various chapters relate to three overarching concepts: interpretation, invention and imagination.

This short book review discusses the philosophical appropriation by Plato and Aristotle of the Greek institution, at once social, political, and religious, of theoria, ‘spectating’. Pythagoras was alleged to have classified those who travelled to the Olympic Games as competitors, traders, or spectators: symbolising the pursuit in human life of honour, economic gain, and wisdom. Plato and Aristotle are often taken accordingly to be committed to what is sometimes labelled ‘the spectator theory of knowledge’, with knowledge of ultimate principles construed as non-discursive intuition or ‘instant ocularity’. But the vision they have in mind is actually the ‘seeing’ constituted by grasp of an explanation of how a whole complex of things hangs together, achieved only after much preparatory, exploratory thought.

Cormac McCarthy’s interest in science and association with the interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute is well remarked. Scholars less regularly explore how scientific theories inform his work, with critics more often noting his generally negative figuration of advanced technologies. On April 20, 2107, after decades of publishing only fiction, plays, and screenplays, McCarthy contributed an essay on linguistics, dream, and the unconscious to the online science journal Nautilus. “The Kekule Problem” occasioned notable critical reactions online, with McCarthy responding in a second essay. This chapter considers these essays while providing an overview of the influence of science and technology on his creative work. McCarthy’s interest in scientific theories promises rich territory for future scholarship, particularly to complement attention to dreams and to figurations of technology. Ultimately, McCarthy’s speculation on lingusitics proves less valuable to that field, of course, than as insights into his own writing process. Open scientific inquiry and speculation run alongside the power of dreams and tecnological skepticism throughout his creative work.