Critical Theory Today is the essential introduction to contemporary criticial theory. It provides clear, simple explanations and concrete examples of complex concepts, making a wide variety of commonly used critical theories accessible to novices without sacrificing any theoretical rigor or thoroughness. This new edition provides in-depth coverage of the most common approaches to literary analysis today: feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, reader-response theory, new criticism, structuralism and semiotics, deconstruction, new historicism, cultural criticism, lesbian/gay/queer theory, African American criticism, and postcolonial criticism. The chapters provide an extended explanation of each theory, using examples from everyday life, popular culture, and literary texts; a list of specific questions critics who use that theory ask about literary texts; an interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory; a list of questions for further practice to guide readers in applying each theory to different literary works; and a bibliography of primary and secondary works for further reading.

Seeks To Be A Comprehensive Introduction To The Fast Growing Discipline Of Literary And Cultural Theory. Elaborates Concepts And Explain Arguments Of Principal Thinkers And Specific Schools.

In the first introduction to Marxist literary criticism in decades, Barbara Foley argues that Marxism continues to offer the best framework for exploring the relationship between literature and society. She lays out in clear terms the principal aspects of Marxist methodology--historical materialism, political economy, and ideology critique--as well as key debates about the nature of literature and the goals of literary criticism and pedagogy. Examining a wide range of texts through the empowering lens of Marxism--from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to E. L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey, from Frederick Douglass's 'What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?' to Annie Proulx's 'Brokeback Mountain'--Foley provides a clear and compelling textbook of Marxist literary criticism.

Literary Theory and Criticism: An Introduction provides an accessible overview of major figures and movements in literary theory and criticism from antiquity to the twenty-first century. It is designed for students at the undergraduate level or for others needing a broad synthesis of the long history of literary theory. An introductory chapter provides an overview of some of the major issues within literary theory and criticism; further chapters survey theory and criticism in antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the nineteenth century. For twentieth- and twenty-first-century theory, the discussion is subdivided into separate chapters on formalist, historicist, political, and psychoanalytic approaches. The final chapter applies a variety of theoretical concepts and approaches to two famous works of literature: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

This accessible guide provides the ideal first step in understanding literary theory.

Originally published in 1982, this is an anthology of studies by French literary theorists representing the most significant contributions to the field made in France in the preceding fifteen years. The essays were published here in English for the first time and cover, among other topics, the methodology of literary studies, the specifics of literary creation, the different facets and levels of the text, and the issues raised by the classification of literature into genres and periods. Biographical notes on the authors and an introduction are provided by the editor. The contributors all reflect in varying degrees the influence of structural linguistics, and this collection will be of value for all those, on whichever side of the debate, concerned with the impact and importance of this method of approach for the study of literature.