Theory & Criticism
Theory of Literature, 1942
Theory of Literature was born from the collaboration of René Wellek, a Vienna-born student of Prague School of Linguistics, and Austin Warren, an independently minded "old New Critic." Unlike many other textbooks of its era, however, this classic kowtows to no dogma and toes no party line. Wellek and Warren looked at literature as both a social product--influenced by politics, economics, etc.--as well as a self-contained system of formal structures. Incorporating examples from Aristotle to Coleridge, written in clear, uncondescending prose, Theory of Literature is a work which, especially in its suspicion of simplistic explanations and its distrust of received wisdom, remains extremely relevant to the study of literature today.
Harcourt, Brace and Company, 424 pgs.
Texts and Contexts, 2001
Writing About Literature with Critical Theory
Steven Lynn
Theories and strategies for writing about literature:
By considering how adept readers behave and what assumptions they might make while interacting with literary text, Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory teaches students the challenging art of writing about literature. The Seventh Edition provides overviews of literature and how to write about it, as well as critical and literary theory with examples throughout. Students will learn versatile strategies in reading, writing, interpreting data, and constructing arguments that can be applied to virtually any field.
Pearson Custom Publishing, 188 pgs.
Practical Criticism, 1930
A Study of Literary Judgment
A landmark of twentieth-century criticism that provided new standards and new techniques for examining literature. "Richards is a master of the psychology of criticism" (Saturday Review).
Harper Perennial, 384 pgs.
Principles of Literary Criticism, 1924
Ivor Armstrong Richards was one of the founders of modern literary criticism. He enthused a generation of writers and readers and was an influential supporter of the young T.S. Eliot. Principles of Literary Criticism was the text that first established his reputation and pioneered the movement that became known as the 'New Criticism'. Highly controversial when first published, Principles of Literary Criticism remains a work which no one with a serious interest in literature can afford to ignore.
Harcourt, Brace and Company, 324 pgs.
The Philosophy of Language, 1996
3rd Edition
What is meaning? How is linguistic communication possible? What is the nature of language? What is the relationship between language and the world? How do metaphors work? The Philosophy of Language, considered the essential text in its field, is an excellent introduction to such fundamental questions. This revised edition collects 39 of the most important articles in the field, making it the most comprehensive volume on the subject.
Oxford University Press, 592 pgs.
The Art of Fiction, 1948
World-renowned novelist and short story author Henry James offers practical advice and considerable insight on what makes quality fiction, and how good writers can create it. A common theme seen in Henry James' works is contrasting the naivete and untrammeled freedom of the New World with the knowledgeable but corrupt nature of Europe and the Old World.
FQ Legacy Books, 266 pgs.
Critical Terms for Literary Study,1995
Second Edition
Frank Lentricchia & Thomas McLaughlin
Critical Terms for Literary Study has become a landmark introduction to the work of literary theory—giving tens of thousands of students an unparalleled encounter with what it means to do theory and criticism. Significantly expanded, this new edition features six new chapters that confront, in different ways, the growing understanding of literary works as cultural practices.
University of Chicago Press, 500 pgs.
Literary Criticism, 2007
An Introduction to Theory and Practice
Unlike other introductions to literary criticism, this book explores the philosophical assumptions of each school of criticism and provides a clear methodology for writing essays according to each school's beliefs and tenets.
Longman, 336 pgs.
A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory,2016
Sixth Edition
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.
After the New Criticism, 1980
This work is the first history and evaluation of contemporary American critical theory within its European philosophical contexts. In the first part, Frank Lentricchia analyzes the impact on our critical thought of Frye, Stevens, Kermode, Sartre, Poulet, Heidegger, Saussure, Barthes, Lévi-Strauss, Derrida, and Foucault, among other, less central figures. In a second part, Lentricchia turns to four exemplary theorists on the American scene—Murray Krieger, E. D. Hirsch, Jr., Paul de Man, and Harold Bloom—and an analysis of their careers within the lineage established in part one.
Athlone Press (UK), 402 pgs.
An Essay on Criticism,1713
Alexander Pope
An Essay on Criticism is one of the first major poems written by the English writer Alexander Pope, published in 1711. It is the source of the famous quotations "To err is human; to forgive, divine", "A little learning is a dang'rous thing", and "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread".
The British Library, 38 pgs.
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1930
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, by Max Weber, a German sociologist, economist, and politician, was begun as a series of essays. The original German text was composed in 1904 and 1905, and was translated into English for the first time by American sociologist Talcott Parsons in 1930. It is considered a founding text in economic sociology and a milestone contribution to sociological thought in general.
Oxford University Press, 314 pgs.
Structural Anthropology, 1963
Structural anthropology is a school of sociocultural anthropology based on Claude Lévi-Strauss' 1949 idea that immutable deep structures exist in all cultures, and consequently, that all cultural practices have homologous counterparts in other cultures, essentially that all cultures are equatable. Strauss has earned "numerous honors from universities and institutions throughout the world."
Harper, 452 pgs.
A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful is a 1757 treatise on aesthetics written by Edmund Burke. It was the first complete philosophical exposition for separating the beautiful and the sublime into their own respective rational categories. It attracted the attention of prominent thinkers such as Denis Diderot and Immanuel Kant.
Penguin Classics, 188 pgs.
The Anatomy of Influence:
Literature as a Way of Life, 2012
For more than half a century, Bloom has shared his profound knowledge of the written word with students and readers. In this, his most comprehensive and accessible study of influence, Bloom leads us through the labyrinthine paths which link the writers and critics who have informed and inspired him for so many years. The result is "a critical self-portrait," a sustained meditation on a life lived with and through the great works of the Western canon: Why has influence been my lifelong obsessive concern? Why have certain writers found me and not others? What is the end of a literary life?
Yale University Press, 376 pgs.
Structuralist Poetics, 1975
A work of technical skill as well as outstanding literary merit, Structuralist Poetics was awarded the 1975 James Russell Lowell Prize of the Modern Language Association. It was during the writing of this book that Culler developed his now famous and remarkably complex theory of poetics and narrative, and while never a populariser he nonetheless makes it crystal clear within these pages.
Routledge, 324 pgs.
Of Grammatology, 1967
Of Grammatology is a 1967 book by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The book, originating the idea of deconstruction, proposes that throughout continental philosophy, especially as philosophers engaged with linguistic and semiotic ideas, writing has been erroneously considered as derivative from speech, making it a "fall" from the real "full presence" of speech and the independent act of writing.
Motilal Banarsidass, 560 pgs.