The Literary Theory Handbook

The Literary Theory Handbook introduces students
to the history and scope of literary theory, showing them how to
perform literary analysis, and providing a greater understanding of
the historical contexts for different theories.

• A new edition of this highly successful text, which includes
  updated and refined chapters, and new sections on contemporary
  theories

• Far reaching in its inclusion of a detailed history of theory
  and in-depth discussions of major theories and movements

• Four distinct perspectives on theory--historical,
  thematic, biographical, practical--are carefully intertwined,
  so that key concepts, terms and ideas are developed in different
  contexts and cross-referenced, in the text and in the index.

• Includes alphabetically-arranged biographies designed for quick
  reference, and sample readings to illustrate the practical
  application of theory

Auteur

Gregory Castle is a professor of British and Irish literature at Arizona State University. He is author of Modernism and the Celtic Revival (2001), Reading the Modernist Bildungsroman (2006), and The Blackwell Guide to Literary Theory (2007) and has edited Postcolonial Discourses (2000) and the Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory, vol. 1 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). He has also published numerous essays on Joyce, Yeats, Wilde, and other Irish writers.

Texte du rabat

The Literary Theory Handbook provides the ideal starting point to the subject for students, offering clarity on the history, scope and application of literary theory, and providing four distinct entryways into this vast and varied discourse.

Raising key questions about the nature of theory and literature, individual chapters offer historical, thematic, biographical, practical perspectives on theoretical concepts, ideas and modes of practice. A chapter on the historical development of theoretical movements, trends and ideas makes connections between and among theories across a century of development. Separate entries on major theories bring together similar methods or objects of study, such as Form, Structure, and Narrative, and short biographical sketches provide a handy reference for key theorists and their major works. The final section of the Handbook features brief readings of literary textsincluding works by Shakespeare, Conrad, Faulkner, Beckett, and Rushdieeach informed by multiple perspectives that exemplify theoretical practice.*

Résumé

The Literary Theory Handbook introduces students to the history and scope of literary theory, showing them how to perform literary analysis, and providing a greater understanding of the historical contexts for different theories.

• A new edition of this highly successful text, which includes updated and refined chapters, and new sections on contemporary theories
• Far reaching in its inclusion of a detailed history of theory and in-depth discussions of major theories and movements
• Four distinct perspectives on theoryhistorical, thematic, biographical, practicalare carefully intertwined, so that key concepts, terms and ideas are developed in different contexts and cross-referenced, in the text and in the index.
• Includes alphabetically-arranged biographies designed for quick reference, and sample readings to illustrate the practical application of theory

Contenu

Acknowledgments x

Alphabetical Listing of Key Movements and Theories xii

Introduction 1

The Nature of Literary Theory 2

What is Literature? 4

The Practice of Theory 8

How To Use the Handbook 9

1 The Rise of Literary Theory 11

Early Developments in Literary Theory 12

Modernism and Formalism, 1890s1940s 18

Cultural and Critical Theory, 1930s1960s 24

The Poststructuralist Turn, 1960s1970s 27

Culture, Gender, and History, 1980s1990s 33

Postmodernism and Post-Marxism, 1980s2000s 39

Posthumanism: Theory at the Fin de Siècle 44

Conclusion 47

2 The Scope of Literary Theory 51

1 Form/Structure/Narrative/Genre 52

Formalism and Structuralism 52

New Criticism 59

Chicago School Neo-Aristotelian Theory 63

Narrative Theory/Narratology 68

Theory of the Novel 75

2 Ideology/Philosophy/History/Aesthetics 84

Marxist Theory 84

Critical Theory 91

Post-Marxist Theory 101

New Historicism/Cultural Poetics 119

Postmodernism 125

3 Language/Systems/Texts/Readers 142

Phenomenology and Hermeneutics 142

Reader-Response Theory 153

Deconstruction 160

Poststructuralism 167

4 Mind/Body/Gender/Identity 178

Psychoanalysis 178

Feminist Theory 190

Gender Studies 198

Gay and Lesbian Studies 204

Trauma Studies 209

5 Culture/Ethnicities/Nations/Locations 218

Cultural Studies 218

African American Studies 225

Ethnic and Indigenous Studies 231

Chicano/a Studies 232

Native and Indigenous Studies 235

Asian American Studies 237

Postcolonial Studies 242

Transnationalism 254

6 People/Places/Bodies/Things 266

Posthumanism 266

Evolutionary Literary Theory 278

Object-Oriented Ontologies 283

Disability Studies 290

Ecocriticism 298

3 Key Figures in Literary Theory 313

Theodor Adorno (190369) 313

Giorgio Agamben (1942 ) 314

Louis Althusser (191890) 315

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (18951975) 316

Roland Barthes (191580) 317

Jean Baudrillard (19292007) 318

Walter Benjamin (18921940) 319

Homi Bhabha (1949 ) 320

Pierre Bourdieu (19302002) 321

Lawrence Buell (1939 ) 322

Judith Butler (1956 ) 323

Hélène Cixous (1937 ) 324

Lennard Davis (1949 ) 324

Teresa de Lauretis (1939 ) 325

Gilles Deleuze (192595) and Félix Guattari (193092) 326

Paul de Man (191983) 327

Jacques Derrida (19302004) 328

Terry Eagleton (1943 ) 330

Frantz Fanon (192561) 330

Stanley Fish (1938 ) 331

Michel Foucault (192684) 332

Henry Louis Gates (1950 ) 333

Sandra Gilbert (1936 ) and Susan Gubar (1944 ) 334

Stephen Greenblatt (1943 ) 335

Elizabeth Grosz (1952 ) 336

Stuart Hall (1932 ) 337

Donna Haraway (1944 ) 338

N. Katherine Hayles (1943 ) 339

bell hooks (1952 ) 340

Luce Irigaray (1930 ) 341

Wolfgang Iser (19262007) 342

Fredric Jameson (1934 ) 343

Julia Kristeva (1941 ) 344

Jacques Lacan (190181) 345

Bruno Latour (1947 ) 346

Jean-François Lyotard (192498) 348

J. Hillis Miller (1928 ) 349

Antonio Negri (1933 ) 350

Jacques Rancière (1940 ) 351

Edward Said (19352003) 352

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (19502009) 353

Elaine Showalter (1941 ) 354 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1942 ...