Literature and Its Theorists: A Personal View of Twentieth-Century Criticism

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.

Life in Common: An Essay in General Anthropology

In this dazzling short meditation on the nature of human relationships, noted Bulgarian philosopher Tzvetan Todorov makes a scholarly yet readable contribution to contemporary debates about the self. Arguing that philosophic thought equated solitude with wholeness until Rousseau "formulated a new conception of man as a being who needs others," Todorov traces the evolution of Rousseau's idea in the modern era and contemporary ideology.