The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory (Penguin Reference Books S.) - Hardcover

Macey, David

4.28

151 ratings by Goodreads

9780140293210: The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory (Penguin Reference Books S.)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0140293213 ISBN 13: 9780140293210

Publisher: Penguin, 2000

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In this excellent dictionary, David Macey helps the student to navigate his/her way around the bewildering maze of theorists, theories and terms that make up the enormous scope of critical theory. With a clear precise style and a very judicious selction of entries, THE PENGUIN DICTIONARY OF CRITICAL THEORY provides the best introduction to critical theory available.

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Review:

"Remarkable for its comprehensiveness, mapping "theory" across a wide range of disciplines and art forms. It is certainly a reference book I will want to have on my own shelves." --David Lodge

"Excellent...an unusual instance of an academic reference book that I do belive doubles quite effectively as a textbook for students and I would recommend it unreservedly to anyone with an interest in theoretical matters, or just in the history of ideas." --Dr. Duncan Wu, St. Catherine's College, Oxford

"An astonishing encyclopaedia of people, ideas and concepts...ideal as introductory essays on a thinker or concept that you want to get a handle on before reading futher...the book also rewards browsers with entries on unpredictable things like "dead white European males" and "false memory syndrome..".a great purchase for students of cultural studies, literature or sociology." --www.Theory.org.uk

"Enlightening and fun: this dictionary is a treasure of easy, elegant erudition. From abjection to zeugma, Plato to Tarantino, it offers focused critical enquiry and entices readers on more whimsical tours around the ideas." --Dr. Andrea Ashworth

"Splendidly done. It brings clarity to the world of difficult concepts and radical ideas that constitute modern and post-modern critical theory, covering the significant schools and bringing clear definitions." --Malcolm Bradbury

From the Publisher:

Some sample entries:

TROPE

Defined in rhetoric as a device involving a change or transference of meaning, and working, unlike a figure, at a conceptual level. The recognition and appreciation of tropes such as metaphor/metonymy implies an intellectual effort on the part of speaker and listener alike.

COLLOCATION

Term introduced into linguistics by J.R. Firth (1951) to describe the habitual co-occurrence of individual words such as `spick and span' and `neat and tidy'. One of the difficulties facing anyone learning a foreign language is the mastery of collocation and the avoidance of the false collocations (`chips and fish', `butter and bread') that so often reduce native speakers to helpless laughter.

PHATIC FUNCTION

Defined by Jakobson (1960), following Malinowski (1923), as any element in the code/message system that serves primarily to establish, prolong or interrupt the communication of a message rather than to impart information. The ritual `Hello, can you hear me?' of a telephone conversation is an everyday example. The phatic function can give rise to a complex exchange of ritualized formulae or even to whole dialogues designed solely to prolong a conversation or to ensure that communication is still taking place. The term `phatic' derives from the Greek phatos, `spoken'.

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