PrefaceAcknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. New Criticism
Before New Criticism
How to Interpret: Key Concepts for New Critical Interpretation
Historicizing the New Criticism: Rethinking Literary Unity
The Intentional Fallacy and the Affective Fallacy
How to Interpret: A New Critical Example
The Influence of New Criticism
Further Reading
3. Structuralism
Key Concepts in Structuralism
How to Interpret: Structuralism in Cultural and Literary Studies
The Death of the Author
How to Interpret: The Detective Novel
Structuralism, Formalism, and Literary History
The Structuralist Study of Narrative: Narratology
How to Interpret: Focalization and Free Indirect Discourse
Narrative Syntax, and Metaphor and Metonymy
Further Reading
4. Deconstruction
Key Concepts in Deconstruction
How to Interpret: A Deconstructionist Example
Writing, Speech, and Différance
Deconstruction beyond Derrida
Deconstruction, Essentialism, and Identity
How to Interpret: Further Deconstructionist Examples
Further Reading
5. Psychoanalysis
Clinical Psychoanalysis
Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis: The Psychoanalytic Understanding of the Mind
Sigmund Freud
How to Interpret: Models of Psychoanalytic Interpretation
From the Interpretation of Dreams to the Interpretation of Literature
How to Interpret: Further Psychoanalytic Examples
Jacques Lacan
How to Interpret: A Lacanian Example
Further Reading
6. Feminism
What Is Feminism?
Early Feminist Criticism
Sex and Gender
Feminisms
How to Interpret: Feminist Examples
Feminism and Visual Pleasure
Intersectionality and the Interdisciplinary Ethos of Contemporary Feminism
Further Reading
7. Queer Studies
Key Concepts in Queer Studies
How to Interpret: A Queer Studies Example
Queer Studies and History
Outing: Writers, Characters, and the Literary Closet
Homosociality and Homosexual Panic
Queer of Color Critique
How to Interpret: Another Queer Studies Example
Questions that Queer Studies Critics Ask
Further Reading
8. Marxism
Key Concepts in Marxism
Lukács, Gramsci, and Marxist Interpretations of Culture
Contemporary Marxism, Ideology, and Agency
How to Interpret: An Example from Popular Culture
How to Interpret: Further Marxist Examples
Further Reading
9. Historicism and Cultural Studies
New Historicism
How to Interpret: Historicist Examples
Michel Foucault
Cultural Studies
How to Interpret: A Cultural Studies Example
Cultural Studies, Historicism, and Literature
Further Reading
10. Postcolonial and Race Studies
Postcolonialism
From Orientalism to Deconstruction: Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
How to Interpret: A Postcolonial Studies Example
Race Studies
How to Interpret: Postcolonial and Race Studies Examples
Postcolonial and Race Studies and Literary Studies
Further Reading
11. Reader Response
Ideal, Implied, and Actual Readers
Structuralist Models of Reading and Communication
Aesthetic Judgment, Interpretive Communities, and Resisting Readers
Reception Theory and Reception History
Readers and the New Technologies
Further Reading
12. Recent and Emerging Developments: Ecocriticism and Disability Studies
Ecocriticism and Environmental Criticism
Disability Studies
A Future for Critical Theory
Further Reading
Works Cited
Photographic Credits
Index
Every chapter ends with Further Reading
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. New Criticism
Before New Criticism
How to Interpret: Key Concepts for New Critical Interpretation
Historicizing the New Criticism: Rethinking Literary Unity
The Intentional Fallacy and the Affective Fallacy
How to Interpret: A New Critical Example
The Influence of New Criticism
3. Structuralism
Key Concepts in Structuralism
How to Interpret: Structuralism in Cultural and Literary Studies
The Death of the Author
How to Interpret: The Detective Novel
Structuralism, Formalism, and Literary History
The Structuralist Study of Narrative: Narratology
How to Interpret: Focalization and Free Indirect Discourse
Narrative Syntax, and Metaphor and Metonymy
4. Deconstruction
Key Concepts in Deconstruction
How to Interpret: A Deconstructionist Example
Writing, Speech, and Différance
Deconstruction beyond Derrida
Deconstruction, Essentialism, and Identity
How to Interpret: Further Deconstructionist Examples
5. Psychoanalysis
Clinical Psychoanalysis
Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis: The Psychoanalytic Understanding of the Mind
Sigmund Freud
How to Interpret: Models of Psychoanalytic Interpretation
From the Interpretation of Dreams to the Interpretation of Literature
How to Interpret: Further Psychoanalytic Examples
Jacques Lacan
How to Interpret: A Lacanian Example
6. Feminism
What Is Feminism?
Early Feminist Criticism
Sex and Gender
Feminisms
How to Interpret: Feminist Examples
Feminism and Visual Pleasure
Intersectionality and the Interdisciplinary Ethos of Contemporary Feminism
7. Queer Studies
Key Concepts in Queer Studies
How to Interpret: A Queer Studies Example
Queer Studies and History
Outing: Writers, Characters, and the Literary Closet
Homosociality and Homosexual Panic
Queer of Color Critique
How to Interpret: Another Queer Studies Example
Questions that Queer Studies Critics Ask
8. Marxism
Key Concepts in Marxism
Lukács, Gramsci, and Marxist Interpretations of Culture
Contemporary Marxism, Ideology, and Agency
How to Interpret: An Example from Popular Culture
How to Interpret: Further Marxist Examples
9. Historicism and Cultural Studies
New Historicism
How to Interpret: Historicist Examples
Michel Foucault
Cultural Studies
How to Interpret: A Cultural Studies Example
Cultural Studies, Historicism, and Literature
10. Postcolonial and Race Studies
Postcolonialism
From Orientalism to Deconstruction: Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
How to Interpret: A Postcolonial Studies Example
Race Studies
How to Interpret: Postcolonial and Race Studies Examples
Postcolonial and Race Studies and Literary Studies
11. Reader Response
Ideal, Implied, and Actual Readers
Structuralist Models of Reading and Communication
Aesthetic Judgment, Interpretive Communities, and Resisting Readers
Reception Theory and Reception History
Readers and the New Technologies
12. Recent and Emerging Developments: Ecocriticism and Disability Studies
Ecocriticism and Environmental Criticism
Disability Studies
A Future for Critical Theory
Works Cited
Photographic Credits
Index