Literary Theory: A Guide for the PerplexedBloomsbury Academic, 2006 - 184 pages Providing a thorough and accessible guide to the major types of critical theories, this book uses everyday language and real-world examples to explain the premises, applications, implications and debates surrounding structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminist theory, queer theory, postcolonial theory and postmodernism. It presents with clarity and humor the ideas of such thinkers as Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Levi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Héléne Cixous, Luce Irigaray, Louis Althusser, Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. This book is designed for readers who have no prior knowledge of literary theory, but who wanted to understand and to use the concepts which have radically altered the way we think about literature, culture, and ourselves in the past twenty years. |
Contents
What is Literary Theory? | 1 |
Humanist Literary Theory | 10 |
Structuralism | 31 |
Copyright | |
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according Althusser argues Aristotle baby Bakhtin basic behavior binary oppositions calls child Cixous clitoris colonized concept constructed create deconstruction defined Derrida desire discourse English essay example exist female body female sexuality feminist theory Foucault Freud gender girls grand narratives guage Hélène Cixous heteroglossia human humanist idea identity ideology Irigaray kind knowledge l'ecriture feminine Lacan Levi-Strauss linguistic literary studies literary text Literary Theory literature look male Marxist masculine meaning mirror stage modern mother myth mythemes nation object Oedipus Complex penis phallogocentric Phallus Plato poetry postcolonial postmodern poststructuralism poststructuralist produce psychoanalysis Queer theory reading reality relations repressed reproductive Saussure says sense sexual pleasure signifier and signified signifying system social speak specific stable story struc structuralist structuralist analysis structure of language subject positions superego Symbolic Order talk theorists things thought tion truth ture unconscious universal woman women word writing