Literary Criticism : An Introduction to Theory and Practice

by Bressler, Charles E.

• ISBN13: 9780138974220
• ISBN10: 0138974225
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

The fourth edition of the bestselling Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice showcases various schools of 20th century criticism in historical and philosophical contexts. New features include: - A new chapter on queer theory. - Every chapter has been revised with new introductions with appropriate new critical vocabulary, critical terms, further readings sections, and web sites. - New student essays - Structuralism and Deconstruction have been combined into one section to make the material clearer and more streamlined. - The addition of Plotinus, Giovanni Boccaccio, Joseph Addison, Percy Pysshe Shelley, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Pick a Penguin Program* We offer select Penguin Putnam titles at a substantial discount to your students when you request a special package of one or more Penguin titles with this text. Please contact your local Prentice Hall Sales Representative for more information.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii	(3)
To the Reader	x
1 Defining Criticism, Theory, and Literature	1	(15)
Eavesdropping on a Literature Classroom	1	(2)
Can a Text Have More than One Interpretation?	3	(1)
How to Become a Literary Critic	3	(1)
What Is Literary Criticism?	4	(1)
What Is Literary Theory?	5	(1)
Making Meaning from Text	6	(1)
The Reading Process and Literary Theory	7	(2)
What Is Literature?	9	(2)
Literary Theory and the Definition of Literature	11	(1)
The Function of Literature and Literary Theory	12	(2)
Beginning the Formal Study of Literary Theory	14	(1)
Further Reading	14	(2)
2 A Historical Survey of Literary Criticism	16	(20)
Plato (ca. 427-347 B.C.)	16	(2)
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)	18	(3)
Horace (65-8 B.C.)	21	(1)
Longinus (First Century A.D.)	22	(1)
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)	22	(1)
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86)	23	(1)
John Dryden (1631-1700)	24	(1)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)	25	(1)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)	26	(2)
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-93)	28	(2)
Matthew Arnold (1822-88)	30	(1)
Henry James (1843-1916)	31	(2)
Modern Literary Criticism	33	(1)
Further Reading	34	(2)
3 New Criticism	36	(26)
Introduction	36	(2)
Historical Development	38	(3)
Assumptions	41	(3)
Methodology	44	(2)
Questions for Analysis	46	(1)
Sample Essays	47	(1)
Further Reading	48	(1)
Websites for Exploration	48	(1)
STUDENT ESSAY: Dale Schuurman, "Keats's `To Autumn': Verses of Praise for a Malicious Season?"	48	(4)
PROFESSIONAL ESSAY: Keats's Sylvan Historian: History Without Footnotes	52	(10)
4 Reader-Response Criticism	62	(25)
Introduction	62	(2)
Historical Development	64	(3)
Assumptions	67	(2)
Methodology	69	(6)
Questions for Analysis	75	(1)
Sample Essays	76	(1)
Further Reading	76	(1)
Websites for Exploration	77	(1)
STUDENT ESSAY: Jen Richardson, "The Masks that Separate: A Paradox of Knowing in Glaspell's Trifles"	77	(3)
PROFESSIONAL ESSAY: Norman Holland, Hamlet-My Greatest Creation	80	(7)
5 Structuralism	87	(27)
Introduction	87	(1)
Historical Development	88	(6)
Assumptions	94	(1)
Methodologies	95	(5)
Questions for Analysis	100	(1)
Sample Essays	100	(1)
Further Reading	101	(1)
STUDENT ESSAY: Julie Claypool, "A Structuralist Look at Glaspell's Trifles"	101	(3)
PROFESSIONAL ESSAY: Robert Scholes, "Decoding Papa: `A Very Short Story' As Work and Text"	104	(10)
6 Deconstruction	114	(33)
Structuralism and Poststructuralism: Two Views of the World	114	(1)
Modernism	115	(2)
Poststructuralism or Postmodernism	117	(3)
Historical Development	120	(3)
Assumptions	123	(3)
Methodology	126	(6)
American Deconstructors	132	(1)
Questions for Analysis	132	(1)
Sample Essays	133	(1)
Further Reading	133	(1)
Websites for Exploration	134	(1)
STUDENT ESSAY: Jennifer Richardson, "Banquet of Contradiction"	135	(3)
PROFESSIONAL ESSAY: J. Hillis Miller, "On Edge: The Crossways of Contemporary Criticism"	138	(9)
7 Psychoanalytic Criticism	147	(31)
Introduction	147	(2)
Historical Development	149	(13)
Questions for Analysis	162	(1)
Sample Essays	163	(1)
Further Reading	163	(1)
Websites for Exploration	164	(1)
STUDENT ESSAY: David Johnson, "A Psychoanalytic Approach to Poe's `The City in the Sea'"	164	(4)
PROFESSIONAL ESSAY: E. Pearlman, "David Copperfield Dreams of Drowning"	168	(10)
8 Feminism	178	(32)
Introduction	178	(2)
Historical Development	180	(8)
Assumptions	188	(2)
Methodology	190	(1)
Questions for Analysis	191	(1)
Sample Essays	191	(1)
Further Reading	192	(1)
Websites for Exploration	192	(1)
STUDENT ESSAY: Kara Roggie, "A Feminist Critique of Margaret Atwood's `Spelling'"	193	(2)
PROFESSIONAL ESSAY: Elizabeth Meese, "Orality and Textuality in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God"	195	(15)
9 Marxism	210	(26)
Introduction	210	(1)
Historical Development	211	(7)
Assumptions	218	(2)
Methodology	220	(1)
Questions for Analysis	221	(1)
Sample Essays	222	(1)
Further Readings	222	(1)
Websites for Exploration	223	(1)
STUDENT ESSAY: Juanita Wolfe, "Baking Bread for the Bourgeoisie"	223	(3)
PROFESSIONAL ESSAY: Lionel Trilling, "Huckleberry Finn"	226	(10)
10 Cultural Poetics or New Historicism	236	(27)
Introduction	236	(1)
A New Critical Lecture	236	(1)
Old Historicism	237	(1)
The New Historicism	238	(1)
Historical Development	238	(3)
Assumptions	241	(4)
Methodology	245	(2)
Questions for Analysis	247	(1)
Sample Essays	247	(1)
Further Reading	248	(1)
Websites for Exploration	248	(1)
STUDENT ESSAY: Krista Adlhock, "Hawthorne's Understanding of History in `The Maypole of Merry Mount'"	249	(3)
PROFESSIONAL ESSAY: Arthur F. Kinney, "Is Literary History Still Possible?"	252	(11)
11 Cultural Studies	263	(15)
Introduction	263	(2)
Postcolonialism: The Empire Writes Back	265	(3)
Postcolonialism and African-American Criticism	268	(2)
Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminism	270	(1)
Sample Essay	271	(1)
Further Reading	271	(1)
Websites for Exploration	272	(1)
PROFESSIONAL ESSAY: Peter Hulme, "Columbus and the Cannibals"	272	(6)
An Overview of the Schools of Literary Criticism	278	(1)
References	279	(20)
Bibliography	299	(2)
Credits	301	(2)
Index	303