At this point in the book - and probably at the early point in your course at which you now find yourself - the distinction about which i have been talking may seem hard to understand . if it does, do not worry. As we move through chapter after chapter i will refer back to it, and will attempt to provide you with a fuller understanding of what it involves, so that when we get to the chapter on 'Critical approaches to fiction' at the end of the book you will see how it underpains many of the different approaches that we survey then.