Theory of Literature

by Paul H. Fry

• ISBN13: 9780300180831
• ISBN10: 0300180837
• Edition: Original
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2012-04-24
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Bringing his perennially popular course to the page, Yale University Professor Paul H. Fry offers in this welcome book a guided tour of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. At the core of the book's discussion is a series of underlying questions: What is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose? Fry engages with the major themes and strands in twentieth-century literary theory, among them hermeneutics, modes of formalism, semiotics and Structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalytic approaches, Marxist and historicist approaches, theories of social identity, Neo-pragmatism and theory. By incorporating philosophical and social perspectives to connect these many trends, the author offers readers a coherent overall context for a deeper and richer reading of literature.

Author Biography

Paul H. Fry is William Lampson Professor of English, Yale University. Among his previous books is Wordsworth and the Poetry of What We Are, published by Yale University Press. He lives in New Haven, CT.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. x
Introduction: The Prehistory and Rise of "Theory"	p. 1
Introduction Continued: Theory and Functionalization	p. 12
First Reflections On Interpretation And Reading
Ways In and Out of the Hermeneutic Circle	p. 27
Configurative Reading	p. 39
Text And Structure
The Idea of the Autonomous Artwork	p. 55
The New Criticism and Other Western Formalisms	p. 68
Russian Formalism	p. 82
Semiotics and Structuralism	p. 95
Linguistics and Literature	p. 108
Deconstruction I: Jacques Derridap123
Deconstruction II: Paul de Man	p. 137
Author (Reader) And Psyche
Freud and Fiction	p. 153
Jacques Lacan in Theory	p. 166
Influence	p. 179
The Postmodern Psyche	p. 192
The Social Context
The Social Permeability of Reader and Text	p. 207
The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory	p. 220
The Political Unconscious	p. 233
The New Historicism	p. 246
The Classical Feminist Tradition	p. 259
African American Criticism	p. 272
Postcolonial Criticism	p. 285
Queer Theory and Gender Performativity	p. 299
The Institutional Construction of Literary Study	p. 312
Theory Con And Pro
The End of Theory? Neo-Pragmaism	p. 329
Conclusion: Who Doesn't Hate Now?	p. 342
Appendix: Passages Referenced in lectures	p. 355
Notes	p. 363
The Varieties of Interpretation: A Guide to Further Reading in Literary Theory	p. 365
Index	p. 379
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