Last Remarks on Theory

I’ll be honest; I entered critical theory with a bit of anxiety. After spending my previous semester abroad in a developing country, where my biggest challenges were learning how to herd sheep and communicate with my hands, the thought of having to do any actual “academic” work frightened me. I was thankfully relieved upon entering the critical theory classroom, that there was no rush in mastering theory. I expected that I would not come out of the class with mastering the subject or even having extensive knowledge on it. I knew at times I would struggle, but I knew in the end I would know a great deal more about critical theory. I can say that I definitely reached this expectation. I was pleasantly surprised to see that literary theory related a great deal to my other major, sociology. It was exciting to see parallels between my two majors. After learning about Marx in a sociology classroom, it was interesting to see how his works influenced and developed a literary theory. I felt the same way when learning feminist literary theory.
Overall, I can gladly say that I learned and understood a great deal more than I expected. At first, I questioned how literary theory is relevant to my everyday life, but as the semester progressed I realized that literary theory was more than just relevant to my sociology courses, it is also relevant to everyday experiences. Jon Rosenblatt’s article is an extreme case of literary theory’s applicability, I don’t anticipate that I will ever encounter theory on that level, but I do see how it impacts our society.