I've recently read "Living with Theory" by Vincent Leitch, 2008 (see my
notes ). He reviews the history of teaching theory. He starts rather stridently - "I for one do not long for or personally miss the previous era's insulating aestheticism, obsessive stylistic analysis, predictable search for image patterns and archetypes, and thin history ... It warned against the heresy of paraphrase, fearing the connection of literature to life ... Compulsory objectivity and obligatory critical disinterest, sacred cows of many a theory opponent, often mask blind spots, racial and gender privileges, nationalistic mindsets, and prejudices" - but then he eases off. He thinks post-structuralism's prominence has been receding since the late 1980s, that its teaching has become more or less standardized by now. It's just one of many approaches (like New Crit and much older methods) that are adopted nowadays, forming a "postmodernisation of reading practices" where "close reading" retains high prestige among academic reading practises. He deals with the politics too (in his US context anyway).