A reader's guide to contemporary literary theory

by Raman Selden

Unsurpassed as a text for upper-division and beginning graduate students, Raman Selden's classic text is the liveliest, most readable and most reliable guide to contemporary literary theory. Includes applications of theory, cross-referenced to Selden's companion volume, Practicing Theory and Reading Literature.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Reference, Literature, Theory, Philosophy, Criticism

153 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Alok Mishra]

I find this book to be the most useful one. Yes, a background is necessary before you get into it. However, compared to other books available on this subject, Raman Selden's approach is by far the most appropriate and the most reader-friendly.

[Sadan]

I had to teach this book to a student and I should say that it can be a living nightmare to those who have a limited knowledge of literary theory. Selden has taken for granted that you are aware of all of the literary theories and he feels free to digress or refer to the names of the least known literary theorists, but this book can serve as a satisfactory summary of literary theory for those who have an acceptable knowledge of the literary criticism. For me, the second reading was rather illuminating and enjoyable.
I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to literary theory though.

[Taha Rabbani]

در توضیحات پشت کتاب، در وصف این کتاب، آمده است «جامعیت و وضوح». اما چندان چیزی از وضوح متن اصلی در ترجمه پیدا نیست.
در مورد کار ناشر بر روی این کتاب هم فکر می‌کنم این نکته کافی باشه که در عنوان انگلیسی کتاب به جای «لیترالی» نوشته‌اند «لایبراری»

در مورد ترجمه‌های بد عباس مخبر می‌تونید به این لینک مراجعه کنید:
http://bahmanagha.blogspot.com/2015/0...

[Kourosh Ghaniyoun]

عنوان كتاب كاملا گوياي فهرست مطالب موجود در آن است. نقطه ضعف عمده كتاب تأكيد يكسان به همه انديشمندان يك مكتب فكري است، حال آنكه به نظر مي رسد مي توان به عنوان مثال در نظريه هاي پساساختگرايي، در قياس با متفكراني چون دومان، وايت، بلوم و غيره حجم بيشتر و مطالعه دقيق تري را به فوكو اختصاص داد. اما نبايد از اين مسئله گذشت كه نقطه قوت كتاب هم دقيقا در همين است كه توانسته مجموعه بزرگي از انديشمندان را پوشش داده و تبديل به مطالعه اي جامع به همراه كتاب شناسي فوق العاده شود.
از طرفي اين نكته را نيز نبايد فراموش كرد كه اين دست كتاب ها، با ارائه ساختاري منسجم از مكاتب فكري، انتخاب موضوعات مطالعات بعدي را آسان كرده و ساختاري ذهني به وجود مي آورند تا پژوهش در نظريه ادبي را ميسر سازد.

[Hasan Abbasi]

یکی از کتابهای مرجع نظریه ادبی. ویژگی مثبت کتاب طبقه بندی زمانی و جامع نظریات ادبی است و نقطه ضعف آنه از همین جامع بودن می آید و به همین دلیل به هر نظریه نگاهی مختصر و گذرا می اندازد. این کتاب متمرکز بر نظریات مدرن ادبی است و آغاز کتاب از بعد از دوره های رمانتیسم و عصر کلاسیک شروع شده و به نظریه انتقادی میپردازد و پس از آن به فرمالیسم، ساخت گرایی، پسا ساخت گرایی، پسا مدرن اشاره میکند و در پایان بهشکل خلاصه از نظریات فمینیستی و پسا استعماری میگوید.

[BonGard]

اصالت زن به جای فمنیسم؟

چیزی از ترجمه ننویسم که دغدغه خودم هم هست اما از کتاب

درست است که کتاب نظریه است اما نحوه پرداخت به مکاتب شدیدن خسته کننده است

به زور تا انتهایش و به دلایل مشخص مجبور شدم بخانمش

وگرنه باید فصل دوم رهایش میکردم

[Leyendo en el sofá]

Un manual muy práctico que ofrece un panorama general para acercarse a las teorías literarias occidentales actuales. Cuenta con una sección de bibliografía por capítulo para acercarse a las fuentes de cada escuela o corriente dentro de las teorías.

[Chet Taranowski]

Although I thought this book was valuable, it is not an introduction to these theories. Sometimes the explanations were very complex and confusing. Essentially, to really benefit from this text, you must have quite a bit of prior knowledge about literary theories.

[Ian]

I wasn't actually planning on reading the whole thing, but it turned out to be pretty good. Filled in some gaps.

[Elin]

Confusingly written and overworked

[sch]

Giving this old textbook a try.

8 pp in and I'm already grumpy. Heaven help me.

Quitting.

[R]

(For the readers in Iran) This is the path I've taken in familiarizing myself with literary theory and criticism, and have found it to be satisfactory, although some may find it too long or time-consuming:
1.A Short History of Literary Criticism By Vernon Hall, short, reader-friendly, and covers up to early 20th Century. May be a good choice for a complete beginner.
2. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice
By Charles E Bressler. More focus on later theories, with helpful examples of their application.
3. Literary Criticism from Plato to the Present: An Introduction By M.A.R. Habib. This book puts more emphasis on both the earlier eras and contemporary theory, and is somewhat less reader-friendly than Bressler.
4. Selden. In the beginning of this journey, I found Selden's book absolutely unreadable. But now I find it very helpful, and completely suited to someone who'd like to fill the gaps in their general knowledge of literary theory and criticism. If you begin this journey as an undergraduate student, you'd be much more comfortable with difficult texts as a graduate student.
Of course one can go anywhere from here, and I appreciate the fact that Selden gives precise recommendations on which essays or books to read on any subject that one feels more interested in.

[M. M. J. Miguel]

Un libro de teoría literaria que repasa las principales vertientes de pensamiento en torno al análisis y acercamiento literario. Desde los formalistas rusos, hasta las teorías queers, es una guía recomendable, que deja preguntas para su reflexión y sirve como acompañante de entrada para quien esté interesado en otras cuestiones del quehacer. Tiene muchas referencias bibliográficas, comentarios acertados y complementa sus ejemplos de forma entendible sin dejar de ser riguroso. Puede que esté algo desfasado, pues el mundo contemporáneo avanza a pasos agigantados, y aún así dar en el clavo.

Sólido libro de consulta.

[Lanie Walkup]

This has helpful info, but is not an introduction. Chapters require you to at least know some theory and seem to be more about idiosyncrasies of various theorists than providing a good working knowledge of the theory and its usefulness. Some of these authors and their theories seem so esoteric so it would have been nice if this guide broke them down a bit more. I feel comforted reading reviews that other people also found their explanations complex and muddy at times. I prefer Eagleton at least on the earlier theories (and for an intro).

[Adán Morales]

¿Te gustaría ser un poco más crítico con lo que lees, y saber diseccionar cualquier obra literaria? Este es tu libro, porque Raman Selden ha sabido condensar en solamente 178 páginas las principales teorías de la literatura en la contemporaneidad; desde el formalismo ruso hasta la teoría feminista.

Desde luego, si buscas una lectura amena que luego te ayude a esparcir y ampliar tus conocimientos sobre este campo del saber, debes leértelo encarecidamente. Esta edición de Ariel y su traducción son espectaculares.

PD: esta lectura solo la recomiendo a aquellos que realmente quieran iniciarse en la teoría de la literatura y tengan unos conocimientos básicos de la disciplina.

[Atram Buddhewad]

It is a comprehensive book on literary theories. It provides the ground views of each theory and each theory discussed from its rise, development and further spread. The writers of the book are regarded as literary critics. The provides good knowledge about the particular theoey.

[Alexis]

a fine introduction to some of the concepts in the field of literary theory- probably not for someone who was not already at least familiar with the broad movements of critical theory and/or literary theory as a whole

[Keith Armando]

Everything I needed to get my idea of the theoretical timeline and its progression in order

[افسانه]

کتاب خوبیه

[Faridfakhr]

این کتاب به همراه کتاب برتنس شروع فوق‌العاده‌ای برای نظریه ادبی هست

[percy]

well i still don’t understand derrida but apart from that i learnt a lot it was great 👍

[Kianna C]

Some good reader centred parts, but Barry did it better

[Stamen Parushev]

Not bad.

[David Roberts]

The book I read to research this post was Contemporary Literary Theory by Raman Selden et al which is a very good book which I bought at a car boot sale. Raman, one of the authors died before he was able to complete the book so someone else finished the project. It used to be people thought there was no schools of thought in litterature and it was merely good or bad. One problem is good and bad writing mean different things to different cultures and races. One university made what at the time considered a serious mistake of employing a structuralist and marxist professor and the newspapers had a field day. Obviously it doesn't affect his ability to do his job. Structuralism comes from the great Russian writers and of course they focused on a technique which they thought writing could be broken down to, hence the name. Russia & France have probably influenced writing more in the 20th century than any other nations. Of course a lot of it was linked to the revolution. In France of course people like Derrida & Foucauldt were coming up with new styles and ways of looking at things. This book does look at a whole string of different styles of writing like feminism, poststructuralism & postmodernism. Feminism really came to the fore in the 60's when women had the chance to get jobs and education and not necessarily get married. Of course writers like Germaine Greer became like celebrities. I did quite enjoy reading this book and noticed there are a lot of book recommendations that are probably out of copyright and probably free on kindle. I would like to read some of those books. This book incidently was published in 1993 and is the 3rd edition & I think is a good read.

[Laura Walin]

The problem of this book is that it delivers exactly what the title promises. It is really a guide to further reading, which means that after having read this one you 1) don't feel that you have read an entire book but rather a list of (about chronologically ordered) bullet points from the history of literary theory b) feel that you should read about 50+ more books to understand what was said in this one. Let's see if the second time around brings more revelation.

[Tiffany]

New Criticism and moral formalism; Russian formalism; reader-oriented theories; Marxist theories; Structuralist theories; Poststructuralist theories; Postmodernist and postcolonialist theories; Feminist theories

[Lenka Halásová]

First five chapters nicely explained, but the further you went it got absolutely incomprehensible. Chapters seven and eight particularly. The last two parts were again nicely explained. As this is my reading for state exams I am disappointed.

[Jackie]

Of course by "I really liked it" I mean, it was dead useful and very readable.

[Mohammed Shanawaz]

it's can be a good elementary book for understanding literary theory...

[Apoorva]

One of the better introductions to the subject, and informative even if you already know quite a fair bit.