Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory

by Barry

• ISBN13: 9780719062681
• ISBN10: 0719062683
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-07
• 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.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	x
Preface to the second edition	xii
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, Lyotard 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 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