About the Book
Introducing Literary Theories is an ideal introduction for those coming to literary theory for the first time. It provides an accessible introduction to the major theoretical approaches in chapters covering: Bakhtinian Criticism, Structuralism, Feminist Theory, Marxist Literary Theories, Reader-Response Theories, Psychoanalytic Criticism, Deconstruction, Poststructuralism, New Historicism, Cultural Materialism, Postcolonial Theory, Gay Studies/ Queer Theories, Cultural Studies and Postmodernism.
A table of contents arranged by theoretical method and a second arranged by key texts offer the reader alternative pathways through the volume and a general introduction, which traces the history and importance of literary theory, completes the introductory material.
In each of the following chapters, the authors provide a clear presentation of the theory in question and notes towards a reading of a key text to help the student understand both the methodology and the practice of literary theory. The texts used for illustration include: In Memoriam A.H.H., Middlemarch, Mrs Dalloway, Paradise Lost, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Prospero’s Books, The Swimming Pool Library and The Tempest. Every chapter ends with a set of questions for further consideration, an annotated bibliography and a supplementary bibliography while a glossary of critical terms completes the book.
Derived and adapted from the successful foundation textbook, Literary Theories: A Reader and Guide, Introducing Literary Theories is a highly readable, self-contained and comprehensive guide that succeeds in making contemporary theory easily understandable.
Contents
1. R. Brandon
Kershner: Mikhail Bakhtin and Bakhtinian criticism
2. K.M. Newton:
Roland Barthes and structuralist criticism
3. Ruth Robbins: Will
the real feminist theory please stand up?
4. Moyra Haslett: The
politics of literature: Marxist Literary Theories
5. Martin McQuillan:
There is no such thing as reader-response theory
6. Jill Barker: The
self, the other, and the text: Psychoanalytic Criticism
7. Julian Wolfreys:
Deconstruction, what remains unread
8. Mark Currie:
Criticism and creativity: Poststructuralist Theories
9. John Brannigan:
History, power, and politics in the literary artifact: New Historicism
10. John Brannigan:
Conflict and contradiction: Cultural Materialism
11. Gail ching-liang
Low & Julian Wolfreys: Postcolonialism and the difficulty of difference
12. n Jane Goldman & Julian Wolfreys: Works on the
Wild(e) side - performing, transgressing,n queering: Gay Studies/Queer Theories
13. Kenneth Womack:
Theorizing culture, reading ourselves: Cultural Studies14. Arkady Plotnitsky:
Postmodernism and Postmodernity: Literature, Criticism, Philosophy, Culture
About the Author / Editor
Julian Wolfreys is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Florida. He is the author and editor of numerous books, most recently Reading: Acts of Close Reading in Literary Theory (Edinburgh University Press) and Victorian Hauntings: Spectrality, Gothic, the Uncanny (Palgrave).
