This Thing Called Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle is a study book in English, suitable for students in higher education. This book addresses the question of what literature is and why and how it can best be studied.
The Thing Called Literature connects literary texts with themes such as dreams, politics, life, death, the everyday and the uncanny. It provides a clear overview of what literary texts do, how they work, and which questions and ideas they evoke. The book consists of three parts: reading, thinking and writing, and includes various examples and summaries that place creative reading at the center.
The latest edition has been thoroughly revised, with extensive updates to the bibliography and an additional chapter on creative non-fiction. Bennett and Royle encourage deep engagement with literature, making This Thing Called Literature an indispensable guide for the study of literature.
The book is thematically aligned with the fields of literary studies, literary theory and semiotics.