Literary Criticism : An Introduction to Theory and Practice

by Charles E. Bressler

ISBN13:

9780135330012

ISBN10:

0135330017

Format:

Paperback

Pub. Date:

9/1/1993

Publisher(s):

Prentice Hall Books

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Summary

This introduction presents the eleven basic schools of twentieth-century literary theory and criticism in their historical and philosophical contexts. Unlike other introductions, this book explicitly presents the philosophical assumptions of each school of criticism and provides a clear methodology for writing essays according to each school's beliefs and tenets. Places literary theory and criticism in historical perspective-- from Plato to Stephen Greenblatt. A Comparison and Contrast Chart clearly delineates the differences and similarities among all the schools of criticism. This new edition offers a Cultural Studies chapter that explains three critical schools: Post Colonialism, Gender Studies, and African American Criticism. A newly updated glossary for all highlighted terms within the book is included. Specific Website addresses that take students directly to List Servers and Home Pages concerning literary theory and criticism is also provided.

Foreword	p. ix
To the Reader	p. xii
Defining Criticism, Theory, and Literature	p. 1
Eavesdropping on a Literature Classroom	p. 1
Can a Text Have More Than One Interpretation?	p. 3
How to Become a Literary Critic	p. 3
What Is Literary Criticism?	p. 4
What Is Literary Theory?	p. 6
Making Meaning from Text	p. 7
The Reading Process and Literary Theory	p. 8
What Is Literature?	p. 10
Literary Theory and the Definition of Literature	p. 12
The Function of Literature and Literary Theory	p. 13
Beginning the Formal Study of Literary Theory	p. 14
Further Reading	p. 15
A Historical Survey of Literary Criticism	p. 16
Introduction	p. 16
Plato (ca. 427-347 B.C.)	p. 16
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)	p. 18
Horace (65-8 B.C.)	p. 21
Longinus (First Century A.D.)	p. 22
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)	p. 23
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)	p. 24
John Dryden (1631-1700)	p. 24
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)	p. 25
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)	p. 26
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893)	p. 29
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)	p. 30
Henry James (1843-1916)	p. 32
Modern Literary Criticism	p. 34
Further Reading	p. 35
New Criticism	p. 37
Introduction	p. 37
Historical Development	p. 39
Assumptions	p. 42
Methodology	p. 45
Questions for Analysis	p. 48
Sample Essay	p. 48
Further Reading	p. 49
Web Sites for Exploration	p. 49
Student Essay: Dale Schuurman, Keats's "To Autumn": Verses of Praise for a Malicious Season?	p. 50
Reader-Response Criticism	p. 55
Introduction	p. 55
Historical Development	p. 57
Assumptions	p. 61
Methodology	p. 63
Questions for Analysis	p. 69
Sample Essay	p. 70
Further Reading	p. 70
Web Sites for Exploration	p. 71
Student Essay: Jennifer Douglas, "Ethan Brand's" Challenge to Me	p. 72
Structuralism	p. 75
Introduction	p. 75
Historical Development	p. 76
Assumptions	p. 82
Methodologies	p. 84
Questions for Analysis	p. 89
Sample Essay	p. 89
Further Reading	p. 90
Web Sites for Exploration	p. 90
Student Essay: Conie Krause, Will the Real Walter Mitty Please Wake Up: A Structuralist's View of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"	p. 91
Deconstruction	p. 94
Structuralism and Poststructuralism: Two Views of the World	p. 94
Modernity	p. 96
Poststructuralism or Postmodernism	p. 98
Historical Development	p. 100
Assumptions	p. 104
Methodology	p. 107
American Deconstructors	p. 113
Questions for Analysis	p. 114
Sample Essay	p. 114
Further Reading	p. 115
Web Sites for Exploration	p. 115
Student Essay: Jennifer Douglas, Deconstructing a "Real" House	p. 116
Psychoanalytic Criticism	p. 119
Introduction	p. 119
Historical Development	p. 121
Assumptions	p. 132
Methodologies	p. 133
Questions for Analysis	p. 135
Sample Essay	p. 136
Further Reading	p. 136
Web Sites for Exploration	p. 137
Student Essay: David Johnson, A Psychoanalytic Approach to Poe's "The City in the Sea"	p. 137
Feminism	p. 142
Introduction	p. 142
Historical Development	p. 144
Assumptions	p. 153
Methodology	p. 154
Questions for Analysis	p. 156
Sample Essay	p. 156
Further Reading	p. 157
Web Sites for Exploration	p. 157
Student Essay: Lori Huth, Throwing Off the Yoke: "Rip Van Winkle" and Women	p. 158
Marxism	p. 161
Introduction	p. 161
Historical Development	p. 162
Assumptions	p. 170
Methodology	p. 172
Questions for Analysis	p. 173
Sample Essay	p. 174
Further Reading	p. 174
Web Sites for Exploration	p. 175
Student Essay: Juanita Wolfe, Baking Bread for the Bourgeoisie	p. 175
Cultural Poetics or New Historicism	p. 179
Introduction	p. 179
Historical Development	p. 181
Assumptions	p. 185
Methodology	p. 188
Questions for Textual Analysis	p. 190
Questions for Analysis	p. 191
Sample Essay	p. 191
Further Reading	p. 191
Web Sites for Exploration	p. 192
Student Essay: Krista Adlhock, Hawthorne's Understanding of History in "The Maypole of Merry Mount"	p. 193
Cultural Studies	p. 197
Introduction	p. 197
Postcolonialism: "The Empire Writes Back"	p. 199
Historical Development of Postcolonialism	p. 200
Assumptions of Postcolonialist Theory	p. 202
Methodology	p. 204
Questions for Analysis	p. 205
Postcolonialism and African American Criticism	p. 205
Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminism	p. 208
Sample Essay	p. 209
Further Reading	p. 209
Web Sites for Exploration	p. 210
Student Essay: Wendy Rader, "The Gentlemen of the Jungle": Or Are They Beasts?	p. 211
Literary Selections	p. 214
"To Autumn"	p. 214
"Ethan Brand"	p. 215
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"	p. 228
"The House on Mango Street"	p. 232
"The City in the Sea"	p. 233
"Rip Van Winkle"	p. 235
"Marked with D."	p. 248
"The Maypole of Merry Mount"	p. 248
"The Gentlemen of the Jungle"	p. 256
Glossary	p. 260
References	p. 289
Credits	p. 312
Index	p. 314
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Literary Criticism : An Introduction to Theory and Practice

9780135330012

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Table of Contents