A Companion to Literary Theory

Introduces readers to the modes of literary and cultural study of the previous half century

A Companion to Literary Theory is a collection of 36 original essays, all by noted scholars in their field, designed to introduce the modes and ideas of contemporary literary and cultural theory. Arranged by topic rather than chronology, in order to highlight the relationships between earlier and most recent theoretical developments, the book groups its chapters into seven convenient sections: I. Literary Form: Narrative and Poetry; II. The Task of Reading; III. Literary Locations and Cultural Studies; IV. The Politics of Literature; V. Identities; VI. Bodies and Their Minds; and VII. Scientific Inflections.

Allotting proper space to all areas of theory most relevant today, this comprehensive volume features three dozen masterfully written chapters covering such subjects as: Anglo-American New Criticism; Chicago Formalism; Russian Formalism; Derrida and Deconstruction; Empathy/Affect Studies; Foucault and Poststructuralism; Marx and Marxist Literary Theory; Postcolonial Studies; Ethnic Studies; Gender Theory; Freudian Psychoanalytic Criticism; Cognitive Literary Theory; Evolutionary Literary Theory; Cybernetics and Posthumanism; and much more.

• Features 36 essays by noted scholars in the field
• Fills a growing need for companion books that can guide readers through the thicket of ideas, systems, and terminologies
• Presents important contemporary literary theory while examining those of the past

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Literary Theory will be welcomed by college and university students seeking an accessible and authoritative guide to the complex and often intimidating modes of literary and cultural study of the previous half century.

David H. Richter, PhD is Professor of English at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center.He publishes in the fields of critical and narrative theory (including film theory), biblical interpretation, and eighteenth-century literature. His most recent critical books are The Progress of Romance: Literary Historiography and the Gothic Novel and Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel.

Notes on Contributors viii

Acknowledgements xv

Introduction 1
David H. Richter

Part I Literary Form: Narrative and Poetry 9

1 British and American New Criticism 11
William E. Cain

2 Chicago Formalism 24
David H. Richter

3 Russian Formalism 36
David Gorman

4 Structuralism and Semiotics 48
Marina Grishakova

5 Stylistics 60
Michael Toolan

6 Contemporary Narrative Theory 72
James Phelan

Part II The Task of Reading 85

7 The Intention Debates 87
Peter J. Rabinowitz

8 Deconstruction 100
Christopher Norris

9 Reader‐Response Theory 114
David S. Miall

10 Empathy Studies 126
Suzanne Keen

11 Contemporary Proposals about Reading in the Digital Age 139
Rachel Sagner Buurma and Matthew K. Gold

Part III Literary Locations and Cultural Studies 151

12 The Location of Literature 153
John Guillory

13 The Verbal and the Visual 165
James A. W. Heffernan

14 Foucault and Poststructuralism 176
Alan D. Schrift

15 Cultural Studies 188
Paul Smith

Part IV The Politics of Literature 203

16 Nothing If Not Determined: Marxian Criticism in History 205
Robert Kaufman

17 The Frankfurt School and Its Successors 218
Jeffrey T. Nealon

18 Althusser: Structuralist or Anti‐Structuralist? 229
Warren Montag

19 New Historicism and Cultural Materialism 238
Neema Parvini

20 Emmanuel Levinas and Giorgio Agamben: Ethics, Aesthetics, Poetics, Politics 250
Thomas Carl Wall

21 Postcolonial Theory 261
Siraj Ahmed

22 Globalization Studies 275
Diana Brydon

Part V Identities 289

23 Race/Literature/Theory 291
James Braxton Peterson

24 Ethnic Studies: Reading Otherwise 302
Ron Scapp

25 Anglophone Feminisms 314
Robyn Warhol

26 Gender Theory: Femininities and Masculinities 325
Margaret Galvan

27 Queer Theory 336
Steven F. Kruger

28 Disability Studies 348
Christopher Krentz

29 Trauma Studies 360
Michelle Balaev

Part VI Bodies and Their Minds 373

30 Freudian Psychoanalytic Criticism 375
Daniel T. O’Hara

31 Lacanian Psychoanalytic Criticism 385
Karen Coats

32 Archetypal Criticism: Jung and Frye 396
Glen Robert Gill

33 Cognitive Literary Criticism 408
G. Gabrielle Starr

Part VII Scientific Inflections 423

34 Evolutionary Literary Theory 425
Joseph Carroll

35 Ecocriticism: The Expanding Universe 439
Harold Fromm

36 Cybernetics and Posthumanism 451
Thomas Foster

Index 463

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