In this paper, we will discuss the utility of Literary Theory and Criticism. By utility, we mean not only usefulness in an intellectual and scholarly sense, this we will cover, but we also mean utility in a social, political, and educational sense. With a focus on contemporary and more comparative forms of Literary Theory, we will deeply investigate its utility through understand the ideas, and the thinkers, of the major theoretical movements. Some of the movements we will investigate are: Marxism, Feminism, Postmodernism, Structuralism, and Poststructuralism, among others. We will also look at why the teaching of Literary Theory to high school age students, which at present is near to non-existent, is important to our culture and our society, and why it may be the most important utility of Criticism.
