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Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice
Presents the eleven basic schools of twentieth-century literary theory and criticism in their historical and philosophical contexts. Unlike other introductions to literary criticism, this text explores the philosophical assumptions of each school of criticism, provides a clear methodology for writing essays according to each school's beliefs and tenets, and features access...more
Paperback, 370 pages
Published
August 5th 2006
by Prentice Hall
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A well-paced overview of twentieth and twenty-first century schools of thought.
Russian Formalists: interpreting via form, i.e., components: diction, imagery, etc. Art as artifact
New Critics (1920s to 1960s): Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, John Crowe Ransom. "The text and only the text." Art as artifact--paradigm and irony resolved via organic unity.
Modernism
Questioning of existence of objective reality and the fixed nature of aesthetic forms. Co...more
Russian Formalists: interpreting via form, i.e., components: diction, imagery, etc. Art as artifact
New Critics (1920s to 1960s): Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, John Crowe Ransom. "The text and only the text." Art as artifact--paradigm and irony resolved via organic unity.
Modernism
Questioning of existence of objective reality and the fixed nature of aesthetic forms. Co...more
So I read this as part of the process of selecting textbooks for a class I'm building which means to be an intro to creative writing, and this has a lot of the features I want for the class' book: namely, it covers a variety of approaches, it has sample essays, and it has a unified authorial voice that can draw contrasts between the schools.
One drawback is that the newer edition of this book appears to be seriously larded up; it's about 200 pages longer, and priced at a little more t...more
One drawback is that the newer edition of this book appears to be seriously larded up; it's about 200 pages longer, and priced at a little more t...more
This is going to be a long post, so get ready, gentle reader!
I have never studied literary theory before. But I have always been interested. So I picked up a book that looked like a basic, simple introduction to the dominant schools of literary criticism. This book, geared to those who have no background in theory (like me!) has no primary texts, but instead each chapter (devoted to a particular theory) is divided into introduction, historical development, assumptions, methodology, q...more
I have never studied literary theory before. But I have always been interested. So I picked up a book that looked like a basic, simple introduction to the dominant schools of literary criticism. This book, geared to those who have no background in theory (like me!) has no primary texts, but instead each chapter (devoted to a particular theory) is divided into introduction, historical development, assumptions, methodology, q...more
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A concise introduction of Literary Criticism. The examples are very easy of Literary Criticism. The examples are very easy to understand. It's good for beginners to learn various approches and theory to literary criticism.
'Literary Criticism' was a very clearly written introduction the theory and practice of Literary Criticism throughout a vast amount of time. Although at times the author did seem to repeat himself and it seemed to drag on. It is very insightful and I recommend it to anyone looking to dive headfirst into Literary Criticism but with no prior knowledge on the topic. Most literary theories are listed in depth in this book, the good, the bad and the ugly :)
It is never easy to review a textbook and I really want to give this book more like 3.5 stars because I just can't quite review it as a 4.
The initial chapters on the history and general theory behind literary criticism were great, but I found as more detail was given on the specific genres of literary theory that I was skimming the material. Because of that I wouldn't be able to assign this as a text, but instead I could see having it with me to use as a reference when students want...more
The initial chapters on the history and general theory behind literary criticism were great, but I found as more detail was given on the specific genres of literary theory that I was skimming the material. Because of that I wouldn't be able to assign this as a text, but instead I could see having it with me to use as a reference when students want...more
This is a nice overview of all the different types of theory and includes a helpful glossary
lulzcannon
rated it
Recommends it for:
Someone looking for a solid foundation in the basics of literary criticism
Shelves:
college-reading
A good foundational book for undergrads that may seem overly simplistic at times but delivers a decent amount of historical and applicable information concerning different schools of literary criticism. It even includes step by step bullet points on how to analyze a text based on particular perspective. While the grad students in my class often joked that this text was about on par with a "For Dummies..." type book, they agreed that it was helpful in establishing a basic understandin...more
I don't much care for reading about literary criticism--had enough of it in college. I did get this book for reference material when I had to teach a literary criticism course. It was a bit of a help, but I was trapped by a syllabus and a text that did not necessarily follow standard criticism.
I read this book for class, it is very helpful if you want a good introduction to literary criticism. I only rated it so low because i still have painful members from all the work the Dr. Bressler had us do in class.
Another book I read to be fully prepared to teach literary criticism. Good information, but not an interesting topic for me personally.
Structuralism, Deconstruction, and New Historicism are well reviewed in this book.
Bressler does a great job of breaking down the key components in literary theory.
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