The bookcase at the end of the thesis: revisioning a literature review

Abstract

Almost twenty years ago Baudrillard (1988, p 95) warned, ‘We live in a universe where there is more and more information and less and less meaning’. Since this unheeded warning, we have produced a far greater mass of information, further constraining our inner search for meaning. Many of us have become estranged from ourselves and the natural world we inhabit. As well, concepts of text, author and reader have been shifting. What then, is the role of literature in these times? In this paper I explore the relationship and nature of the Literature Review to research and the researcher by examining the importance of three literary authors in particular during the journey into, during and beyond the doctoral thesis.