This chapter presents some background and context for adaptationist literary study, outlining the main historical movements in literary theory over the past 150 years or so and locating adaptationist critics in relation to that history. It then identifies the kinds of work done by adaptationist literary scholars and gives a concise guide to their chief contributions. The chapter distinguishes adaptationist criticism from other schools that are in some way associated with evolutionary thought and discusses the debate, within evolutionary psychology itself, about the adaptive status and function of literature and the other arts. The concept of human nature is central both to Darwinian social science and to Darwinian literary study. Adaptationist literary theorists argue that literature is produced by human nature, is shaped by human nature, and takes human nature as its primary subject.