Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory

by Barry

Edition:

2nd

ISBN13:

9780719062681

ISBN10:

0719062683

Format:

Paperback

Pub. Date:

9/7/2002

Publisher(s):

Manchester University Press

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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.

Author Biography

Peter Barry is Reader in English at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Acknowledgements

Preface to the second edition

xii

Introduction

(1)

About this book

(5)

Approaching theory

(3)

Stop and think: reviewing your study of literature to date

(1)

My own 'stock-taking'

(2)

Theory before `theory' - liberal humanism

(28)

The history of English studies

(5)

Stop and think

(5)

Ten tenets of liberal humanism

(5)

Literary theorising from Aristotle to Leavis -some key moments

(10)

Liberal humanism in practice

(1)

The transition to `theory'

(2)

Some recurrent ideas in critical theory

(2)

Selected reading

(3)

Structuralism

(22)

Structuralist chickens and liberal humanist eggs

(2)

Signs of the fathers - Saussure

(5)

Stop and think

(1)

The scope of structuralism

(3)

What structuralist critics do

(1)

Structuralist criticism: examples

(10)

Stop and think

(2)

Stop and think

(2)

Stop and think

(3)

Selected reading

(1)

Post-structuralism and deconstruction

(20)

Some theoretical differences between structuralism and post-structuralism

(4)

Post-structuralism - life on a decentred planet

(5)

Stop and think

(2)

Structuralism and post-structuralism - some practical differences

(3)

What post-structuralist critics do

(1)

Deconstruction: an example

(6)

Selected reading

(2)

Postmodernism

(15)

What is postmodernism? What was modernism?

(4)

`Landmarks' in postmodernism: Habermas, Lyotard and Baudrillard

(6)

Stop and think

(1)

What postmodernist critics do

(1)

Postmodernist criticism: an example

(3)

Selected reading

(2)

Psychoanalytic criticism

(25)

Introduction

(2)

How Freudian interpretation works

(4)

Stop and think

101

(1)

Freud and evidence

102

(3)

What Freudian psychoanalytic critics do

105

(1)

Freudian psychoanlaytic 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 critics 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

(20)

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

(3)

Postcolonial criticism

192

(11)

Background

192

(2)

Postcolonial reading

194

(5)

Stop and think

198

(1)

What postcolonial critics do

199

(1)

Postcolonialist criticism: an example

200

(1)

Selected reading

201

(2)

Stylistics

203

(19)

Stylistics: a theory or a practice?

203

(2)

A brief historical account: from rhetoric, to philology, to linguistics, to stylistics, to new stylistics

205

(3)

How does stylistics differ from standard close reading?

208

(2)

The ambitions of stylistics

210

(4)

Stop and think

213

(1)

What stylistic critics do

214

(1)

Stylistics: examples

215

(4)

Note

219

(1)

Selected reading

219

(3)

Narratology

222

(26)

Telling stories

222

(2)

Aristotle

224

(2)

Vladimir Propp

226

(5)

Gerard Genette

231

(8)

Is the basic narrative mode `mimetic' or `diegetic'?

231

(1)

How is the narrative focalised?

232

(1)

Who is telling the story?

233

(1)

How is time handled in the story?

234

(1)

How is the story `packaged'?

235

(2)

How are speech and thought represented?

237

(2)

`Joined-up' narratology

239

(2)

Stop and think

240

(1)

What narratologists do

241

(1)

Narratology: an example

241

(5)

Selected reading

246

(2)

Ecocriticism

248

(24)

Ecocriticism or green studies?

248

(3)

Culture and nature

251

(6)

Turning criticism inside out

257

(7)

Stop and think

261

(3)

What ecocritics do

264

(1)

Ecocriticism: an example

264

(5)

Selected reading

269

(3)

Appendices

272

(7)

1 Edgar Allan Poe, `The oval portrait'

272

(3)

2 Dylan Thomas, `A refusal to mourn'

275

(1)

3 William Cowper, `The castaway'

276

(3)

Where do we go from here? Further reading

279

(6)

General guides

279

(1)

Reference books

280

(1)

General readers

280

(1)

Applying critical theory: twelve early examples

281

(2)

Against theory

283

(2)

Index

285

Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory

9780719062681

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents