the crossing and the dotting

[oldlady]

"All art will always have various theories encorporated, and in an ideal manner, I feel this may serve the purpose of attempting to understand the art with more accuracy. This goal, however, seems rather idealistic, and seldom appears as the end of art theories; most theories merely, and I almost hate to use this word, stereotype most literature according to its era, author, social occurrences, origin, etc. In my opinion, most contemporary literary theories follow this 'stereotype' to the crossing of every 't' and the dotting of every 'i.' "

Is 'following ... to the crossing of every t and the dotting of every i ' an idiom?
Are 't' and 'i' references to something?

[danmahaffey]

"All art will always have various theories encorporated, and in an ideal manner, I feel this may serve the purpose of attempting to understand the art with more accuracy. This goal, however, seems rather idealistic, and seldom appears as the end of art theories; most theories merely, and I almost hate to use this word, stereotype most literature according to its era, author, social occurrences, origin, etc. In my opinion, most contemporary literary theories follow this 'stereotype' to the crossing of every 't' and the dotting of every 'i.' "

Is 'following ... to the crossing of every t and the dotting of every i ' an idiom?
Are 't' and 'i' references to something?This is a figure of speech rather than an idiom. It is a cultural reference. In this case, and you can see it clearly, it refers to making sure that every letter t has a cross through it and every letter i has a dot on it. This is important in handwriting. Everyone crosses t's and dots i's. Only the most careless writer does not cross a t or dot an i. But the super-careful will go over a manuscript looking for a missed cross or dot. So this figure of speech suggest needless worry over inclusion of every possible thing on a subject.

[oldlady]

I got it. Thank you.