Literary Theory: an Introduction - Hardcover

Eagleton, Terry

3.94

5,373 ratings by Goodreads

9780816612383: Literary Theory: an Introduction

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0816612382 ISBN 13: 9780816612383

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 1983

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A quarter of a century on from its original publication, Literary Theory: An Introduction still conjures the subversion, excitement and exoticism that characterized theory through the 1960s and 70s, when it posed an unprecedented challenge to the literary establishment. Eagleton has added a new preface to this anniversary edition to address more recent developments in literary studies, including what he describes as the growth of a kind of anti–theory , and the idea that literary theory has been institutionalized. Insightful and enlightening, Literary Theory: An Introduction remains the essential guide to the field. 25th Anniversary Edition of Terry Eagleton s classic introduction to literary theory First published in 1983, and revised in 1996 to include material on developments in feminist and cultural theory Has served as an inspiration to generations of students and teachers Continues to function as arguably the definitive undergraduate textbook on literary theory Reissue includes a new foreword by Eagleton himself, reflecting on the impact and enduring success of the book, and on developments in literary theory since it was first published

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Review:

"This book shaped the reception of theory in Britain for a generation." Times Higher Education Supplement

Praise for the First Edition of Literary Theory

Literary Theory has the kind of racy readability that one associates more often with English critics who have set their faces resolutely against theory ... It′s not just a brilliant polemical essay, it′s also a remarkable feat of condensation, explication, and synthesis ... Stimulating and entertaining.
Sunday Times

This concise and lucid volume offers a satisfying survey of all the major theories, from structuralism in the 1960s to deconstruction today, that have made academic criticism both intriguing and off–putting to the outsider.
New York Times Book Review

A polemical, amusing and very informative introduction ... indispensable.
Jonathan Culler

"The best handbook to those arcane ics and isms, both for academy members and for any civilians who, having heard the distant roar of professorial cannons, might wonder what the skirmishing is about."
Voice Literary Supplement

From the Publisher:

Updated to include recent intellectual trends.
"This concise and lucid volume offers a satisfying survey of all the major theories, from structuralism in the 1960s to deconstruction today, that have made academic criticism both intriguing and off-putting to the outsider." New York Times Book Review

"Literary Theory has the kind of racy readibility that one associates more often with English critics who have set their faces resolutely against theory. . . . It's not just a brilliant polemical essay, it's also a remarkable feat of condensation, explication, and synthesis. I haven't read anything in the field of literary theory that was at the same time so stimulating and so entertaining since the Polemical Introduction to Northrup Frye's Anatomy of Criticism." London Sunday Times

"A brilliant, agile performance: urgent and racy, witty and combative, lucid and compelling." New Statesman (UK)

"A concise guide to the most interesting and mystifying trends in the study of literature over the last fifty years." The Nation

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