What is Literary Theory? Is there a relationship between literature and culture? In fact, what is Literature, and does it matter? These are the sorts of questions addressed by Jonathan Culler in a book which steers a clear path through a subject which is often perceived to be impenetrable. It offers insights into theories about the nature of language and meaning, whether literature is a form of self-expression or a method of appeal to an audience, and outlines the ideas behind a number of different schools: deconstruction, semiotics, postcolonial theory, and structuralism amongst them.

"Now and then," writes Lionel Triling "it is possible to observe the moral life in process of revising itself." In this new book he is concerned with such a mutation: the process by which the arduous enterprise of sincerity, of being true to one's self, came to occupy a place of supreme importance in the moral life--and the further shift which finds that place now usurped by the darker and still more strenuous modern ideal of authenticity. Instances range over the whole of Western literature and thought, from Shakespeare to Hegel to Sartre, from Robespierre to R.D. Laing, suggesting the contradictions and ironies to which the ideals of sincerity and authenticity give rise, most especially in contemporary life. Lucid, and brilliantly framed, its view of cultural history will give "Sincerity and Authenticity" an important place among the works of this distinguished critic.

◆当今文学世界最伟大的心灵，当代人文主义批评大师 乔治•斯坦纳经典代表作
◆最彻骨的现代启示录，最宏阔的人文主义襟怀
本书的主题——对政治暴行的深入反思——极具当代性
对文学的梳理兼具历史感与现实关怀
可谓能指引我们重识自身与时代的经典作品
◆著名学者李欧梵倾情作序推荐
本书是乔治•斯坦纳的代表作，也是20世纪西方人文批评的经典著作。其核心议题是语言、文学批评与人道主义（及反人道主义）。其辑录的文章写于不同时期，但都共有一个根本的主题——语言的生命。在斯坦纳看来，语言是文化的代表。而现代西方的几股非人道主义逆流（尤其是纳粹）导致了语言文化的滥用与污染，使西方文学的创作陷入“沉默”。因此，在经历了种种浩劫之后，语言及其相关的现实世界究竟该何去何从？批评家与知识分子在这一过程中又该担当何种责任？