Since I published in Spanish The Crypts of Criticism. Twenty Readings of the “Odyssey” in 2008, there have been many developments in Literary Theory. In these fifteen years, Cultural Studies have expanded a lot. The new trends are increasingly political and social. So much so that they often go to the detriment of literature. It wouldn’t have to be like that. If the literature researcher does not set it aside and acts as a writer and as a philologist, the interrelationships can be welcome. Any investigation can be interesting, if it deepens and focuses on words, intelligence and fiction. When the student analyzes a cultural phenomenon superficially and tries to give an opinion like an amateur journalist or like a sociologist without any training, the result is very poor and says nothing that we did not know before.

In The Crypts of Criticism, I considere that the Literary Studies of the 21st century walk towards the critique of the System (Queer Theory, Postcolonial, Institutional critique); the dissolution of borders (races, genders, the real & the virtual; the journey); the defense of the marginalized and the secondary; The most respected idea is interrelationship. Globalization has many supporters, but it also has detractors since it threatens minorities.

Although the main lines that I’ve described in 2008 have been keeped, I think it may be useful for the reader to update its contents and order them according to this scheme, since the diversity of fields of work is enormous.

Now it would be my turn to illustrate each tendency of this scheme with a commentary on the Odyssey as I do in the rest of the chapters of The Crypts of Criticism in order you can better see what it is about. However, this time I leave it to you to put these new 21st century approaches into practice.