关键词: 西方文论, 诗学, 文学批评, 文学科学, 文学理论

Abstract: Western literary theory was initially named "poetics," and modern times saw the decline of the use of "poetics" and the rise of the use of criticism. Criticism produced literary criticism the English-speaking world and Literaturwissenschaft in the German-Russian speaking world. The late period of 20th century, literary theory was used as an umbrella term by scholars in English-speaking to unify the Western theories on literature, resulting in three names referring to the same field: literary theory, literary criticism and critical theory. Nowadays, the science of literature in German-Russian world and literary theory in English-speaking world co-exist and develop in their own ways. While the term of "poetics" continues to be an umbrella term for all the theories of literature, it also becomes the study of poetry which is understood as a branch of literary theory. Poetics has also entered the theoretical systems of both German-Russian and Anglo-Franco criticism and produced such branches as comparative poetics, theoretical poetics, historical poetics and cultural poetics. All these contribute to the current situation of literary theory in the Western world. 

Key words: Western literary theory, poetics, literary criticism, Literaturwissenschaft