Beginning Theory : An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory

by Peter Barry

• ISBN13: 9780719043260
• ISBN10: 0719043263
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1995-10-15
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

In this second edition ofBeginning Theory, the variety of approaches, theorists, and technical language is lucidly and expertly unraveled and explained, and allows readers to develop their own ideas once first principles have been grasped. Expanded and updated from the original edition first published in 1995, Peter Barry has incorporated all of the recent developments in literary theory, adding two new chapters covering the emergent Eco-criticism and the re-emerging Narratology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	1	(1)
About this book	1	(5)
Approaching theory	6	(3)
Stop and think: Reviewing your study of literature to date	8	(1)
-- My own stock-taking	9	(2)
Theory before `theory' -- liberal humanism	11	(28)
The history of English studies	11	(5)
Stop and think:	11	(5)
Ten tenets of liberal humanism	16	(5)
Literary theorising from Aristotle to Leavis -- some key moments	21	(10)
Liberal humanism in practice	31	(1)
The transition to `theory'	32	(2)
Some recurrent ideas in critical theory	34	(2)
Selected reading	36	(3)
Structuralism	39	(22)
Structuralist chickens and liberal humanist eggs	39	(2)
Signs of the fathers -- Saussure	41	(5)
Stop and think	45	(1)
The scope of structuralism	46	(3)
What structuralist critics do	49	(1)
Structuralist criticism: examples	50	(10)
Stop and think	53	(2)
Stop and think	55	(2)
Stop and think	57	(3)
Selected reading	60	(1)
Post-structuralism and deconstruction	61	(20)
Some theoretical differences between structuralism and post-structuralism	61	(4)
Post-structuralism - life on a decentred planet	65	(5)
Stop and think	68	(2)
Structuralism and post-structuralism - some practical differences	70	(3)
What post-structuralist critics do	73	(1)
Deconstruction: an example	73	(6)
Selected reading	79	(2)
Postmodernism	81	(15)
What is postmodernism? What was modernism?	81	(4)
`Landmarks' in postmodernism: Habermas and Baudrillard	85	(6)
Stop and think	90	(1)
What postmodernist critics do	91	(1)
Postmodernist criticism: an example	91	(3)
Selected reading	94	(2)
Psychoanalytic criticism	96	(25)
Introduction	96	(2)
How Freudian interpretation works	98	(4)
Stop and think	101	(1)
Freud and evidence	102	(3)
What Freudian psychoanalytic critics do	105	(1)
Freudian psychoanlytic criticism: examples	105	(3)
Lacan	108	(7)
What Lacanian critics do	115	(1)
Lacanian criticism: an example	115	(3)
Selected reading	118	(3)
Feminist criticism	121	(18)
Feminism and feminist criticism	121	(3)
Feminist criticism and the role of theory	124	(2)
Feminist criticism and language	126	(4)
Feminist criticism and psychoanalysis	130	(4)
Stop and think	133	(1)
What feminist critics do	134	(1)
Feminist criticism: an example	134	(2)
Selected reading	136	(3)
Lesbian/gay criticism	139	(17)
Lesbian and gay theory	139	(1)
Lesbian feminism	140	(3)
Queer theory	143	(5)
What lesbian/gay criticis do	148	(2)
Stop and think	149	(1)
Lesbian/gay criticism: an example	150	(3)
Selected reading	153	(3)
Marxist criticism	156	(16)
Beginnings and basics of Marxism	156	(2)
Marxist literary criticism: general	158	(1)
`Leninist' Marxist criticism	159	(2)
`Engelsian' Marxist criticism	161	(2)
The present: the influence of Althusser	163	(4)
Stop and think	166	(1)
What Marxist critics do	167	(1)
Marxist criticism: an example	168	(2)
Selected reading	170	(2)
New historicism and cultural materialism	172	(19)
New historicism	172	(2)
New and old historicisms - some differences	174	(1)
New historicism and Foucault	175	(2)
Advantages and disadvantages of new historicism	177	(2)
Stop and think	178	(1)
What new historicists do	179	(1)
New historicism: an example	179	(3)
Cultural materialism	182	(2)
How is cultural materialism different from new historicism?	184	(3)
Stop and think	186	(1)
What cultural materialist critics do	187	(1)
Cultural materialism: an example	187	(2)
Selected reading	189	(2)
Postcolonial criticism	191	(11)
Background	191	(2)
Postcolonial reading	193	(5)
Stop and think	197	(1)
What postcolonialist critics do	198	(1)
Postcolonialist criticism: an example	199	(1)
Selected reading	200	(2)
Stylistics	202	(18)
Stylistics, a theory or a practice?	000	(204)
A brief historical account: from rhetoric, to philology, to linguistics, to stylistics, to new stylistics	204	(3)
How does stylistics differ from standard close reading?	207	(2)
The ambitions of stylistics	209	(4)
Stop and think	212	(1)
What stylistic critics do	213	(1)
Stylistics: examples	214	(4)
Selected reading	218	(2)
Appendices	220	(7)
1 `The oval portrait'	220	(3)
Edgar Allan Poe
2 `A refusal to mourn'	223	(1)
Dylan Thomas
3 `The castaway'	224	(3)
William Cowper
Where do we go from here? Further reading	227	(6)
General guides	227	(1)
Reference books	227	(1)
General readers	228	(1)
Applying critical theory: twelve examples	229	(2)
Against theory	231	(2)
Index	233