The ten topics contained in Twentieth-Century Literary Theory reflect contemporary theoretical interests and guide the reader through fundamental questions, from the formation to the uses of theory, and from the construction to the interpretation of literature. The selected essays cover a wealth of scholarship from both the United States and Europe. They go beyond traditional categories by focusing on issues rather than writers or critical movements, thus providing a forum for the continuing discussion of what theory is and does.

Considering The Great Popularity Of The First Four Editions Of The Book, Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, And Keeping In Mind The Valuable Suggestions Received From Several Quarters, The Present Fifth Edition Has Been Revised And Enlarged By An Addition Of Twelve New Chapters. It Contains Fifty Chapters In All, Organized Into Two Parts.Part I Of The Book Lays Emphasis On Various Schools Of Criticism That Are Prevalent In India And The West. Each Chapter Contains An Analysis Of The Theory In Question And Shows The Trend And Development As Well As The Methodology Of Literary Criticism In The 20Th Century. Recent Issues In Twentieth Century Criticism, Postcolonial Theory, Translation Theory, Cultural Criticism And Gender Studies Are Among The Many Attractions Of The Book.Part Ii Of The Book Contains Discussions On A Large Number Of Critical Essays And Critics Such As Eliot, Richards, Leavis, Barthes, Foucault And The Postcolonial Critics. The Seminal Critical Essays Included In This Section Have Influenced The Critical Trends In The Twentieth Century And Changed The General Perception Of Criticism. These Chapters, Apart From Giving A Comprehensive Idea Of The Critical Concepts Also Provide An Analytic Study Of The Critical Works. Important Postcolonial Critics Like Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha And Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Have Been Discussed With New Insight.Professor Das Has Explained The Theories And The Texts With Clarity And Precision In A Lucid Language. This Is An Invaluable Reference Book For Anyone Interested In The Field Of Literary Criticism In The Twentieth Century.

A thoroughly revised edition of this successful undergraduate introduction to literary theory, this text includes core pieces by leading theorists from Russian Formalists to Postmodernist and Post-colonial critics. An ideal teaching resource, with helpful introductory notes to each chapter.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. The Critical Revolution Turns Right -- 2. The Scholarly Turn -- 3. The Historicist/Contextualist Paradigm -- 4. The Critical Unconscious -- Conclusion: The Future of Criticism -- Appendix: The Critical Paradigm and T.S. Eliot -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Originally published in French under the title Critique de la critique. This is a paperbound reprint of the 1987 translated edition, which includes an appendix written in response to American reactions to the French edition. It is the final volume in a trilogy devoted to the theory and tradition of literary criticism (its two predecessors are: Theories of the symbol and Symbolism and interpretation, both Cornell UP). Coverage here is of the Russian, German, French, and Anglo-American traditions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The term "modernism" is central to any discussion of twentieth-century literature and critical theory. Astradur Eysteinsson here maintains that the concept of modernism does not emerge directly from the literature it subsumes, but is in fact a product of critical practices relating to nontraditional literature. Intervening in these practices, and correlating them with modernist works and with modern literary theory, Eysteinsson undertakes a comprehensive reexamination of the idea of modernism. Eysteinsson critically explores various manifestations of modernism in a rich array of American, British, and European literature, criticism, and theory. He first examines many modernist paradigms, detecting in them a conflict between modernism's culturally subversive potential and its relatively conservative status as a formalist project. He then considers these paradigms as interpretations-and fabrications-of literary history. Seen in this light, modernism both signals a historical change on the literary scene and implies the context of that change. Laden with the implications of tradition and modernity, modernism fills its major function: that of highlighting and defining the complex relations between history and postrealist literature. Eysteinsson focuses on the ways in which the concept of modernism directs our understanding of literature and literary history and influences our judgment of experimental and postrealist works in literature and art. He discusses in detail the relation of modernism to the key concepts postmodernism, the avant-garde, and realism. Enacting a crisis of subject and reference, modernism is not so much a form of discourse, he asserts, as its interruption-a possible "other" modernity that reveals critical aspects of our social and linguistic experience in Western culture. Comparatists, literary theorists, cultural historians, and others interested in twentieth-century literature and art will profit from this provocative book.