6th Edition
A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory
A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory is a classic introduction to the complex yet crucial area of literary theory. This book is known for its clear, accessible style and its thorough, logical approach, guiding the reader through the essentials of literary theory. It includes two new chapters: ‘New Materialisms’ which incorporates ecocriticism, animal studies, posthumanism and thing theory; ‘21st Century and Future Developments’ which includes technology, digital humanities, ethics and affect.
Contents
Preface to the Sixth Edition
Introduction
1. New Criticism, moral formalism and F. R. Leavis
Origins: Eliot, Richards, Empson
The American New Critic
Moral formalism: F. R. Leavis
2. Russian formalism and the Bakhtin School
Shklovsky, Mukařovský, Jakobson
The Bakhtin School
3. Reader-oriented theories
Phenomenology: Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer
Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser
Fish, Riffaterre, Bleich
4. Structuralism
The linguistic background
Structuralist narratology
Metaphor and metonymy
Structuralist poetics
5. Marxism
Soviet Socialist Realism
Lukács and Brecht
The Frankfurt School and After: Adorno and Benjamin
‘Structuralist’ Marxism: Goldmann, Althusser, Macherey
‘New Left’ Marxism: Williams, Eagleton, Jameson
6. Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud
Jacques Lacan
Trauma Studies
Slavoj Žižek
7. Feminism
First-wave feminist criticism: Woolf and de Beauvoir
Second-wave feminist criticism
Kate Millett: sexual politics
Marxist feminism
Elaine Showalter: gynocriticism
French feminism: Kristeva, Cixous, Irigaray
8 Poststructuralism
Roland Barthes
Deleuze and Guattari
Deconstruction: Jacques Derrida
American deconstruction
Michel Foucault
New Historicism and Cultural Materialism
9. Postmodernism
Jean Baudrillard
Jean-François Lyotard
Postmodernism and Marxism
Postmodern feminisms
10. Postcolonialism, race and ethnicity
Edward Said
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Homi K. Bhabha
Race and ethnicity
11. Gay, lesbian and queer theories
Gay theory and criticism
Lesbian feminist theory and criticism
Queer theory and criticism
12. Post-theory
13. Ecocriticism, animal studies, thing theory
Ecocriticism
Animal Studies
Thing theory
14. World literature and digital humanities
World literature
Digital Humanities
Appendix
1: Glossaries and dictionaries of theoretical and critical terms
2: Literary, critical and cultural theory journals
Index of names, titles and topics
Biography
Raman Selden was Professor of English at Lancaster University and Sunderland Polytechnic. He is remembered with lasting admiration for his contribution to 17th century studies and especially for his pioneering and lucid introductions of literary theory. His warmth, commitment and energy remain an inspiration to former colleagues and students.
Peter Widdowson was Professor of English at the Universities of Middlesex, Brighton and Gloucester. He was able uniquely to combine seriousness with wit and good humour. His strong and questioning historical sense, evident in his teaching and notably in his work on Thomas Hardy and on the ramifications of contemporary theory, remains a model for younger scholars.
Peter Brooker is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Culture, Film and Media at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. He is the author of A Glossary of Literary and Cultural Theory (Routledge, 2016) and Bertolt Brecht: Dialectics, Poetry, Politics (Routledge Revivals, 2016).
