All literary theory begins here. Aristotle's Poetics is perhaps the earliest work on theory and gives one of the best explanations of...

"A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no...

Understanding any art form can give the writer insight into craft and aesthetics. Here are notes on Michel Foucault's analysis of...

Jorge Louis Borges is one of the giants. Here are notes on a collection of his essays on craft.

This essay by the Russian Formalist Viktor Shklovsky introduces one of the most important concepts in literary theory: Defamiliarization....

Many novels follow a protagonist along the Hero's Journey. Here are notes on Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, a book...