How to Interpret Literature

How to Interpret Literature PDF Author: Robert Dale Parker
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780190855697
Category : Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Book Description
"Distinguished in the market by its ability to mesh accessibility and intellectual rigor, How to Interpret Literature offers a current, concise, and broad historicist survey of contemporary thinking in critical theory. Ideal for upper-level undergraduate courses in literary and critical theory, this is the only book of its kind that thoroughly merges literary studies with cultural studies, including film. Robert Dale Parker provides a critical look at the major movements in literary studies since the 1930s, including those often omitted from other texts. He includes chapters on New Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Queer Studies, Marxism, Historicism and Cultural Studies, Postcolonial and Race Studies, and Reader Response. Parker weaves connections among chapters, showing how these different ways of thinking respond to and build upon each other. Through these exchanges, he prepares students to join contemporary dialogues in literary and cultural studies. The text is enhanced by charts, text boxes that address frequently asked questions, photos, and a bibliography"--

College Level Examination Programme

College Level Examination Programme PDF Author:
Publisher: Research & Education Assoc.
ISBN: 9780878918973
Category : College-level examinations
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
This updated guide is perfect for self-study with 3 full-length practice exams, 3 free-response practice exams, detailed answers to all questions, test-taking strategies, powerhouse drills and study schedule. Exams cover prose, poetry, drama and theater, reading and comprehension, and identifying literary devices. Also features REA's popular software, TESTware, with full-length, timed, computerized practice exams and automatic.

Using Critical Theory

Using Critical Theory PDF Author: Lois Tyson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136645683
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
Explaining both why theory is important and how to use it, Lois Tyson introduces beginning students of literature to this often daunting area in a friendly and approachable style. The new edition of this textbook is clearly structured with chapters based on major theories that students are expected to cover in their studies. Key features include: coverage of major theories including psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, lesbian/gay/queer theories, postcolonial theory, African American theory, and a new chapter on New Criticism (formalism) practical demonstrations of how to use these theories on short literary works selected from canonical authors including William Faulkner and Alice Walker a new chapter on reader-response theory that shows students how to use their personal responses to literature while avoiding typical pitfalls new sections on cultural criticism for each chapter new ‘further practice’ and ‘further reading’ sections for each chapter a useful "next step" appendix that suggests additional literary titles for extra practice. Comprehensive, easy to use, and fully updated throughout, Using Critical Theory is the ideal first step for students beginning degrees in literature, composition and cultural studies.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

How to Read Literature Like a Professor PDF Author: Thomas C. Foster
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061804061
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface—a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character—and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you. In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.

Aesthetics, Theory and Interpretation of the Literary Work

Aesthetics, Theory and Interpretation of the Literary Work PDF Author: Paolo Euron
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004409238
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Book Description
This book introduces the reader to the literary work and to an understanding of its cultural background and its specific features, presenting basic topics and ideas in their historical context and development in Western culture.

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read PDF Author: Pierre Bayard
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596917148
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 117

Book Description
In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of "non-reading"-from books that you've never heard of to books that you've read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.

Critical Theory

Critical Theory PDF Author: Robert Dale Parker
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199797776
Category : Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A wide-ranging and refreshingly up-to-date anthology of primary readings, Critical Theory: A Reader for Literary and Cultural Studies presents a provocative mix of contemporary and classic essays in critical theory. From the foundational ideas of Marx and Freud to key writings by Fanon and Foucault, the essays in this collection represent the most influential ideas in modern critical thought and in the contemporary interpretation of literature and culture. This collection of seminal readings invites students to join in the ongoing debates and controversies of critical discussion, reading, writing, and interpretation.

How to Read Literature

How to Read Literature PDF Author: Terry Eagleton
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300190964
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
DIV A literary master’s entertaining guide to reading with deeper insight, better understanding, and greater pleasure /div

How to Read a Book

How to Read a Book PDF Author: Mortimer J. Adler
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476790159
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Book Description
Investigates the art of reading by examining each aspect of reading, problems encountered, and tells how to combat them.

How to Read African American Literature

How to Read African American Literature PDF Author: Aida Levy-Hussen
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479838144
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
How to Read African American Literature offers a series of provocations to unsettle the predominant assumptions readers make when encountering post-Civil Rights black fiction. Foregrounding the large body of literature and criticism that grapples with legacies of the slave past, Aida Levy-Hussen’s argument develops on two levels: as a textual analysis of black historical fiction, and as a critical examination of the reading practices that characterize the scholarship of our time. Drawing on psychoanalysis, memory studies, and feminist and queer theory, Levy-Hussen examines how works by Toni Morrison, David Bradley, Octavia Butler, Charles Johnson, and others represent and mediate social injury and collective grief. In the criticism that surrounds these novels, she identifies two major interpretive approaches: “therapeutic reading” (premised on the assurance that literary confrontations with historical trauma will enable psychic healing in the present), and “prohibitive reading” (anchored in the belief that fictions of returning to the past are dangerous and to be avoided). Levy-Hussen argues that these norms have become overly restrictive, standing in the way of a more supple method of interpretation that recognizes and attends to the indirect, unexpected, inconsistent, and opaque workings of historical fantasy and desire. Moving beyond the question of whether literature must heal or abandon historical wounds, Levy-Hussen proposes new ways to read African American literature now.