This volume of new work presents an account of current thinking on central issues within and beyond the humanities today. It brings together such leading figures as Sacvan Bercovitch and Helen Vendler, Anthony Appiah and Barbara Johnson, Seyla Benhabib and Norman Bryson, Martha Minow and Henry Louis Gates,Jr, Marjorie Garber and Susan Suleiman and explores such questions as: What is culture ? What are cultures ? Are literary texts and cultural texts different ? What do literary and other fields engaged in cultural work have in common ? What can literary studies profitably do with other disciplines ? What can cultural studies tell us about culture ?