In selecting representative twentieth-century thinkers, Todorov's intention is both to illuminate significant conceptual issues and to suggest intellectual points of contact among well-known figures. . . . In addition to dealing with varying interpretations of criticism's functions and tasks, this work considers means by which several writers of fiction arrived at their own positions on major literary controversies. . . . Literature and Its Theorists work gives ample expression to Todorov's literary and moral convictions.