How to Interpret Literature Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies

by Parker, Robert Dale

• ISBN13: 9780195334708
• ISBN10: 0195334701
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Offering a refreshing combination of accessibility and intellectual rigor,How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studiespresents an up-to-date, concise, and wide-ranging historicist survey ofcontemporary thinking in critical theory. Ideal for upper-level undergraduateand graduate courses in literary and critical theory, this is the only book ofits kind that thoroughly merges literary studies with cultural studies,including film. Robert Dale Parker provides a critical look at the majormovements in literary studies since the 1930s, including those often omittedfrom other texts. He includes chapters on New Criticism, Structuralism,Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Queer Studies, Marxism, Historicismand Cultural Studies, Postcolonial and Race Studies, and Reader Response. Parkerweaves connections among chapters, showing how these different ways of thinkingrespond to and build upon each other. Through these exchanges, he preparesstudents to join contemporary dialogues in literary and cultural studies.Parker's engaging writing style relates directly to today's students and theirdaily lives. He underscores the connections between critical theory andstudents' other coursework, as well as its links to their technologically filledlives. The text is enhanced by charts, text boxes that address frequently askedquestions, photos, and a bibliography. Intellectually challenging yet remarkably readable--and devoted to theinterpretation of both literary and cultural studies--How to InterpretLiterature stands out from other surveys of critical theory. Its flexible formatmakes this volume ideal as either a stand-alone text or in conjunction with ananthology of primary readings.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

New Criticism

How to Interpret: Key Concepts from New Criticism

Historicizing the New Criticism: Rethinking Literary Unity

The Intentional Fallacy and the Affective Fallacy

How to Interpret: A New Critical Example

Structuralism

Structuralism in Cultural and Literary Studies

The Structuralist Study of Narrative: Narratology

Narrative Syntax, Metaphor and Metonymy

Deconstruction

Writing, Speech, and Differance

Deconstruction beyond Derrida

Deconstruction, Essentialism, and Identity

How to Interpret: More Deconstructive Examples

Psychoanalysis

The Psychoanalytic Understanding of the Mind

How to Interpret: Models of Psychoanalytic Interpretation

From the Interpretation of Dreams to the Interpretation of Literature

Feminism

Early Feminist Criticism

Sex and Gender

Feminisms

How to Interpret: Feminist Examples

Feminism and Visual Pleasure

Queer Studies

How to Interpret: A Queer Studies Example

Queer Studies and History

Outing: Writers, Characters, and the Literary Closet

Homosociality and Heterosexual PanicHow to Interpret: Another Queer Studies Example

Marxism

Contemporary Marxism, Ideology, and Agency

How to Interpret: Marxist Examples

Historicism and Cultural Studies

New Historicism

Michel FoucaultCultural Studies

How to Interpret: Cultural Studies, Historicism, and Literature

Postcolonial and Race Studies

Postcolonialism

From Orientalism to Deconstruction

Race Studies: Postcolonial Theory and the Construction of Race

How to Interpret: Postcolonial and Race Studies Examples

Reader Response

Afterword

Works Cited

Further Reading

Index

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