Critical Terms for Literary Study

Critical Terms for Literary Study PDF Author: Frank Lentricchia
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226472094
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
Since its publication in 1990, Critical Terms for Literary Study has become a landmark introduction to the work of literary theory—giving tens of thousands of students an unparalleled encounter with what it means to do theory and criticism. Significantly expanded, this new edition features six new chapters that confront, in different ways, the growing understanding of literary works as cultural practices. These six new chapters are "Popular Culture," "Diversity," "Imperialism/Nationalism," "Desire," "Ethics," and "Class," by John Fiske, Louis Menand, Seamus Deane, Judith Butler, Geoffrey Galt Harpham, and Daniel T. O'Hara, respectively. Each new essay adopts the approach that has won this book such widespread acclaim: each provides a concise history of a literary term, critically explores the issues and questions the term raises, and then puts theory into practice by showing the reading strategies the term permits. Exploring the concepts that shape the way we read, the essays combine to provide an extraordinary introduction to the work of literature and literary study, as the nation's most distinguished scholars put the tools of critical practice vividly to use.

Critical Terms for Literary Study

Critical Terms for Literary Study PDF Author: Frank Lentricchia
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226472094
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since its publication in 1990, Critical Terms for Literary Study has become a landmark introduction to the work of literary theory—giving tens of thousands of students an unparalleled encounter with what it means to do theory and criticism. Significantly expanded, this new edition features six new chapters that confront, in different ways, the growing understanding of literary works as cultural practices. These six new chapters are "Popular Culture," "Diversity," "Imperialism/Nationalism," "Desire," "Ethics," and "Class," by John Fiske, Louis Menand, Seamus Deane, Judith Butler, Geoffrey Galt Harpham, and Daniel T. O'Hara, respectively. Each new essay adopts the approach that has won this book such widespread acclaim: each provides a concise history of a literary term, critically explores the issues and questions the term raises, and then puts theory into practice by showing the reading strategies the term permits. Exploring the concepts that shape the way we read, the essays combine to provide an extraordinary introduction to the work of literature and literary study, as the nation's most distinguished scholars put the tools of critical practice vividly to use.

Literary Criticism

Literary Criticism PDF Author: Mark Bauerlein
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812203879
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
As the study of literature has extended to cultural contexts, critics have developed a language all their own. Yet, argues Mark Bauerlein, scholars of literature today are so unskilled in pertinent sociohistorical methods that they compensate by adopting cliches and catchphrases that serve as substitutes for information and logic. Thus by labeling a set of ideas an "ideology" they avoid specifying those ideas, or by saying that someone "essentializes" a concept they convey the air of decisive refutation. As long as a paper is generously sprinkled with the right words, clarification is deemed superfluous. Bauerlein contends that such usages only serve to signal political commitments, prove membership in subgroups, or appeal to editors and tenure committees, and that current textual practices are inadequate to the study of culture and politics they presume to undertake. His book discusses 23 commonly encountered terms—from "deconstruction" and "gender" to "problematize" and "rethink"—and offers a diagnosis of contemporary criticism through their analysis. He examines the motives behind their usage and the circumstances under which they arose and tells why they continue to flourish. A self-styled "handbook of counterdisciplinary usage," Literary Criticism: An Autopsy shows how the use of illogical, unsound, or inconsistent terms has brought about a breakdown in disciplinary focus. It is an insightful and entertaining work that challenges scholars to reconsider their choice of words—and to eliminate many from critical inquiry altogether.

Averroes' Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics

Averroes' Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics PDF Author: Averroës
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Aristotle's Poetics has held the attention of scholars and authors through the ages, and Averroes has long been known as "the commentator" on Aristotle. His Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics is important because of its striking content. Here, an author steeped in Aristotle's thought and highly familiar with an entirely different poetical tradition shows in careful detail what is commendable about Greek poetics and commendable as well as blameworthy about Arabic poetics.

Engagements with Contemporary Literary and Critical Theory

Engagements with Contemporary Literary and Critical Theory PDF Author: Evan Gottlieb
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317526295
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Engagements with Contemporary Literary and Critical Theory is a wide-ranging but accessible introduction to the key thinkers and theories integral to the study of literature. Organized thematically, the book provides historical introductions and uses a variety of relevant contemporary examples to illuminate the field. Evan Gottlieb contextualizes the latest developments with regard to forms; discourses; subjectivities and embodiments; media, networks, and machines; and animals, affects, objects, and environments. Each chapter elucidates its concepts through in-depth discussions of major contemporary theorists, including Giorgio Agamben, Sara Ahmed, and Catherine Malabou, and uses engaging examples from a canonical novel, a contemporary text, and a new-media artifact to demonstrate theoretical applications. Additional text boxes regularly introduce emerging or overlooked theorists of interest, including Fred Moten and Sianne Ngai. An ideal guide for students of literary and critical theory, this book will give readers the background they need to continue their own explorations of this vibrant field of study.

Critical Keywords in Literary and Cultural Theory

Critical Keywords in Literary and Cultural Theory PDF Author: Julian Wolfreys
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350317764
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
This book is an invaluable reference guide for students of literary and cultural studies which introduces over forty of the complex terms, motifs and concepts in literary and cultural theory today. Critical Keywords in Literary and Cultural Theory - Gives students a brief introduction to each concept together with short quotations from the work of key thinkers and critics to stimulate discussion and guide genuine comprehension - Supplies helpful glosses and annotations for each term, concept or keyword which is discussed - Offers reflective, practical questions at the end of each entry to direct the student to consider a particular aspect of the quotations and the concept they address - Provides explanatory notes and bibliographies to aid further research This essential volume is ideal as both a dip-in reference book and a guide to literary theory for practical classroom use.

Using Critical Theory

Using Critical Theory PDF Author: Lois Tyson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136645683
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Explaining both why theory is important and how to use it, Lois Tyson introduces beginning students of literature to this often daunting area in a friendly and approachable style. The new edition of this textbook is clearly structured with chapters based on major theories that students are expected to cover in their studies. Key features include: coverage of major theories including psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, lesbian/gay/queer theories, postcolonial theory, African American theory, and a new chapter on New Criticism (formalism) practical demonstrations of how to use these theories on short literary works selected from canonical authors including William Faulkner and Alice Walker a new chapter on reader-response theory that shows students how to use their personal responses to literature while avoiding typical pitfalls new sections on cultural criticism for each chapter new ‘further practice’ and ‘further reading’ sections for each chapter a useful "next step" appendix that suggests additional literary titles for extra practice. Comprehensive, easy to use, and fully updated throughout, Using Critical Theory is the ideal first step for students beginning degrees in literature, composition and cultural studies.

How to Interpret Literature

How to Interpret Literature PDF Author: Robert Dale Parker
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780190855697
Category : Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
"Distinguished in the market by its ability to mesh accessibility and intellectual rigor, How to Interpret Literature offers a current, concise, and broad historicist survey of contemporary thinking in critical theory. Ideal for upper-level undergraduate courses in literary and critical theory, this is the only book of its kind that thoroughly merges literary studies with cultural studies, including film. Robert Dale Parker provides a critical look at the major movements in literary studies since the 1930s, including those often omitted from other texts. He includes chapters on New Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Queer Studies, Marxism, Historicism and Cultural Studies, Postcolonial and Race Studies, and Reader Response. Parker weaves connections among chapters, showing how these different ways of thinking respond to and build upon each other. Through these exchanges, he prepares students to join contemporary dialogues in literary and cultural studies. The text is enhanced by charts, text boxes that address frequently asked questions, photos, and a bibliography"--

Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings

Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings PDF Author: Sōseki Natsume
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231518315
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) was the foremost Japanese novelist of the twentieth century, known for such highly acclaimed works as Kokoro, Sanshiro, and I Am a Cat. Yet he began his career as a literary theorist and scholar of English literature. In 1907, he published Theory of Literature, a remarkably forward-thinking attempt to understand how and why we read. The text anticipates by decades the ideas and concepts of formalism, structuralism, reader-response theory, and postcolonialism, as well as cognitive approaches to literature that are only now gaining traction. Employing the cutting-edge approaches of contemporary psychology and sociology, Soseki created a model for studying the conscious experience of reading literature as well as a theory for how the process changes over time and across cultures. Along with Theory of Literature, this volume reproduces a later series of lectures and essays in which Soseki continued to develop his theories. By insisting that literary taste is socially and historically determined, Soseki was able to challenge the superiority of the Western canon, and by grounding his theory in scientific knowledge, he was able to claim a universal validity.

Affect Theory and Literary Critical Practice

Affect Theory and Literary Critical Practice PDF Author: Stephen Ahern
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319972685
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Affect Theory and Literary Critical Practice develops new approaches to reading literature that are informed by the insights of scholars working in affect studies across many disciplines, with essays that consider works of fiction, drama, poetry and memoir ranging from the medieval to the postmodern. While building readings of representative texts, contributors reflect on the value of affect theory to literary critical practice, asking: what explanatory power is affect theory affording me here as a critic? what can the insights of the theory help me do with a text? Contributors work to incorporate lines of theory not always read together, accounting for the affective intensities that circulate through texts and readers and tracing the operations of affectively charged social scripts. Drawing variously on queer, feminist and critical race theory and informed by ecocritical and new materialist sensibilities, essays in the volume share a critical practice founded in an ethics of relation and contribute to an emerging postcritical moment.

What is Literature?

What is Literature? PDF Author: Mark Robson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405182946
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 632

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Book Description
An essential guide to understanding literary theory and criticism in the European tradition What is Literature? A Critical Anthology explores the most fundamental question in literary studies. ‘What is literature?’ is the name of a problem that emerges with the idea of literature in European modernity. This volume offers a cross-section of modern literary theory and reflects on the history of thinking about literature as a specific form. What is Literature? reveals how ideas of the literary draw on the foundations of Western thought in ancient Greece and Rome, charting the emergence of modern literature in the eighteenth century, and including selections from the present state of the art. The anthology includes the work of leading writers and critics of the last two thousand years including Plato, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jacques Rancière, and many others. The book is an insightful examination of the nature of literature, its meanings and values, functions and forms, provocations and mysteries. What is Literature? brings together in one volume influential and intriguing essays that show our enduring fascination with the idea of literature. This important guide: Contains a broad selection of the most significant texts on the topic of literature Includes leading writers from ancient times to the most recent thinkers on literature and criticism Encourages readers to reflect on the varied meanings of “literature” What is Literature? A Critical Anthology is a unique collection of texts that will appeal to every student and scholar of literature and literary criticism in the European tradition.