Literary Criticism and the History of Marketing Thought: A New Perspective on "Reading" Marketing Theory

This paper proposes the addition of concepts drawn from literary criticism to philosophical and historical ones in order to provide insights into "reading" marketing theory. The paper sets forth three modes of literary criticism applic able to the analysis of marketing theory-psychobiographi cal, editorial, and structural. It offers as an illustrative example a reading of the history of Ernest Dichter's motiva tion research movement using these methods. The addition of literary analysis demonstrates how textual clues can en rich the historian's study of the rise and fall of marketing phenomena over time.