From the Series' Preface:The books in this series offer introductions to major critical thinkers whohave influenced literary studies and the humanities. The Routledge CriticalThinkers series provides the books you can turn to first when a new name orconcept appears in your studies.Each book will equip you to approach a key thinker’s original texts byexplaining her or his key ideas, putting them into context and, perhaps mostimportantly, showing you why this thinker is considered to be significant. Theemphasis is on concise, clearly written guides which do not presuppose aspecialist knowledge. Although the focus is on particular figures, the seriesstresses that no critical thinker ever existed in a vacuum but, instead,emerged from a broader intellectual, cultural and social history. Finally, thesebooks will act as a bridge between you and the thinker’s original texts: notreplacing them but rather complementing what she or he wrote.