How to Interpret Literature Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies

by Parker, Robert Dale

• ISBN13: 9780199757503
• ISBN10: 019975750X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Offering a refreshing combination of accessibility and intellectual rigor,How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies,Second Edition, presents an up-to-date, concise, and wide-ranging historicist survey of contemporary thinking in critical theory. The only book of its kind that thoroughly merges literary studies with cultural studies, it provides a critical look at the major movements in literary studies since the 1930s, including those often omitted from other texts. It is also the only up-to-date survey of literary theory that devotes full chapters to Queer Theory and Postcolonial and Race Studies. Intellectually challenging yet remarkably readable,How to Interpret Literature,Second Edition, is ideal as either a stand-alone text or in conjunction with an anthology of primary readings. DISTINCTIVE FEATURES * Uses aconversational and engaging tonethat speaks directly to today's students * Covers avariety of theoretical schools--including New Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Marxism--weaving connections among chapters to show how these different movements respond to and build upon each other * Offers a richassortment of pedagogical features(charts, text boxes that address frequently asked questions, photos, and a bibliography) NEW TO THIS EDITION * Incorporates thelatest developmentsin the field (e.g., continental political philosophy, ecocriticism, and disability studies) * Presents areorganized and expanded final chapter(Chapter 11: Reader Response) * Now includes"How to Interpret" sectionswithin every chapter *Moves suggested readings to the ends of corresponding chaptersto highlight the texts for students * Includes references to morerecent literature and contemporary movies(e.g.,Avatar), diversifying the already broad selection of examples

Author Biography

Robert Dale Parker is James M. Benson Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
New Criticism	p. 11
How to Interpret: Key Concepts for New Critical Interpretation	p. 18
Historicizing the New Criticism: Rethinking Literary Unity	p. 23
The Intentional Fallacy and the Affective Fallacy	p. 30
How to Interpret: A New Critical Example	p. 38
Further Reading	p. 42
Structuralism	p. 44
Key Concepts in Structuralism	p. 45
How to Interpret: Structuralism in Cultural and Literary Studies	p. 52
The Death of the Author	p. 57
How to Interpret: The Detective Novel	p. 58
Structuralism, Formalism, and Literary History	p. 63
The Structuralist Study of Narrative: Narratology	p. 66
Narrative Syntax, Metaphor, and Metonymy	p. 78
Further Reading	p. 84
Deconstruction	p. 86
Key Concepts in Deconstruction	p. 87
How to Interpret: A Deconstructionist Example	p. 93
Writing, Speech, and Differance	p. 95
Deconstruction beyond Derrida	p. 99
Deconstruction, Essentialism, and Identity	p. 102
How to Interpret: More Deconstructive Examples	p. 108
Further Reading	p. 110
Psychoanalysis	p. 112
The Psychoanalytic Understanding of the Mind	p. 115
Sigmund Freud	p. 118
How to Interpret: Models of Psychoanalytic Interpretation	p. 123
From the Interpretation of Dreams to the Interpretation of Literature	p. 128
How to Interpret: Psychoanalytic Examples	p. 131
Jacques Lacan	p. 138
Further Reading	p. 147
Feminism	p. 148
Early Feminist Criticism	p. 151
Sex and Gender	p. 157
Feminisms	p. 159
How to Interpret: Feminist Examples	p. 163
Feminism and Visual Pleasure	p. 166
Further Reading	p. 176
Queer Studies	p. 179
Key Concepts in Queer Studies	p. 180
How to Interpret: A Queer Studies Example	p. 186
Queer Studies and History	p. 189
Outing: Writers, Characters, and the Literary Closet	p. 194
Homosociality and Heterosexual Panic	p. 199
How to Interpret: Another Queer Studies Example	p. 205
Further Reading	p. 208
Marxism	p. 211
Key Concepts in Marxism	p. 212
Contemporary Marxism, Ideology, and Agency	p. 221
How to Interpret: Marxist Examples	p. 235
Further Reading	p. 242
Historicism and Cultural Studies	p. 244
New Historicism	p. 244
How to Interpret: Historicist Examples	p. 250
Michel Foucault	p. 255
Cultural Studies	p. 260
How to Interpret: A Cultural Studies Example	p. 262
Cultural Studies, Historicism, and Literature	p. 265
Further Reading	p. 267
Postcolonial and Race Studies	p. 270
Postcolonialism	p. 271
From Orientalism to Deconstruction: Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak	p. 278
How to Interpret: A Postcolonial Studies Example	p. 293
Race Studies: Postcolonial Theory and the Construction of Race	p. 295
How to Interpret: Postcolonial and Race Studies Examples	p. 307
Further Reading	p. 311
Reader Response	p. 314
Ideal, Implied, and Actual Readers	p. 317
Structuralist Models of Reading and Communication	p. 319
Aesthetic Judgment, Interpretive Communities, and Resisting Readers	p. 324
Reception Theory and Reception History	p. 328
Readers and the New Technologies	p. 330
Further Reading	p. 332
Afterword	p. 335
Works Cited	p. 337
Photographic Credits	p. 341
Index	p. 343
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