This book has been helping students navigate through the thickest
of literary and cultural theory for well over a decade now. This
new and expanded third edition continues to offer students and
readers the best one-volume introduction to the field. The
bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language
is lucidly and expertly unravelled. Unlike many books which assume
certain positions about the critics and the theories they
represent, Peter Barry allows readers to develop their own ideas
once first principles and concepts have been grasped. The book has
been updated and includes two new chapters, one of which (Literary
theory -- a history in ten events) innovatively surveys the course
of theory, while the other (Theory after 'Theory') maps the
arrival of new 'isms' since the second edition appeared in
2002.
Always reassuringly urbane, and often witty...Barry's book remains important, especially as a work of mediation between those who would innately be inclined to 'take' or 'leave' theory. Martin Blocksidge, The Use of English: The English Association Journal for Teacher of English, 01/03/2012 -- Martin Blocksidge. The Use of English: The English Association Journal for Teacher of English
Peter Barry is Professor of English at the University of Aberystwyth
Inhaltsangabe
1. Theory before 'Theory' - Liberal humanism 2. Structuralism 3. Post-structuralism and deconstruction 4. Postmodernism 5. Psychoanalytic criticism 6. Feminist criticism 7. Lesbian/gay criticism 8. Marxist criticism 9. New historicism and cultural materialism 10. Postcolonial criticism 11. Stylistics 12. Narratology 13. Ecocriticism 14. Literary theory - a history in ten events 15. Theory after 'Theory' Appendices Edgar Allan Poe: 'The Oval Portrait' Dylan Thomas: 'A Refusal to Mourn' William Cowper: 'The Castaway' Where do we go from here: Further reading
