This general issue of Mosaic considers the ability of certain theories to sufficiently articulate meaning about the world and the literature that describes it. Among the explored concepts are notions of game and play, science, social theory, and literary criticism. Essays engage with topics such as the machine in the age of David Garrick, Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics, the Anglo-Saxon poem Doer, and representations of the poor in Edwardian England.