Towards A Cultural Study of Literature: ON the Course of Literary Study from Works to Texts

In the western literary theory and cultural context of the 20th century, especially in the post-modern theory, the word text has become an abstruse concept. A text, as a bearer of materialized literature, is a stage on which critics and theorists display their talent and wisdom. In a way, how a text is understood and interpreted always constutes a barometer indicating the evolution and transformation of the western literary theory. In this paper, the author briefly investigates the reproduction and change of literature in the critical subject, ranging from literary text to text through to cultural text. My investigation will be focused upon a few concepts, like literature, works, text, signifier, signified and cultural text, and the discussion will spread in a historical linear way, in the light of the contemporary literary critical theory.