This commentary raises and examines several implicit challenges that emerge from attempting to construct theory: defining the function of theory itself;

本评论提出并考察了一些在构建理论的努力过程中得以显现的隐性的问题：明确理论自身的功能；

youdao

Now in addition to defining literature, literary theory also asks questions obviously not unrelated but which open up the field somewhat.

除了定义文学以外，文学理论还提出一些,显然不是不相关，却开辟了新领域的问题。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

Many of the issues that I raised in talking about defining literature are as relevant for literary criticism as they are for literary theory, and yet we all instinctively know that these are two very different enterprises.

当讨论文学的定义时，我提出的许多问题,对于文学理论和文学评论都同样相关，但我们都知道,它们是两个不同的概念。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

But perhaps the defining theme of the new philanthropy is not so much its fondness for business theory as its iconoclasm.

ECONOMIST: The gospel of wealth