"Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory" provides an accessible introduction to contemporary critical theories from new criticism to cultural studies as part of the practice of writing about literature. Providing a wealth of writing strategies, the text explains the assumptions underlying the various critical theories, and then takes the readers through the process of employing these methods to enrich their engagements with literature. This 3rd Edition includes a new Chapter 1, An Introduction, Theoretically as well as updated coverage of research and the Internet. For anyone interested in enhancing their reading and writing skills through critical theory.
Each chapter concludes with “Works Cited” and “Recommended Further Reading” sections.
Preface.
1. An Introduction, Theoretically.
Textual Tours.
Checking Some Baggage.
Anything to Declare?
2. Critical Visions: A Selective Tour.
New Criticism.
From Here at The New Yorker, Brendan Gill.
Reader-Response Criticism.
Deconstructive Criticism.
Historical, Postcolonial, and Cultural Studies.
Psychological Criticism.
Feminist Criticism.
Other Approaches.
3. Unifying the Work: New Criticism.
The Purpose of New Criticism.
Basic Principles Reflected.
Ars Poetica, Archibald MacLeish.
Radicals in Tweed Jackets.
How to Do New Criticism.
The Writing Process: A Sample Essay.
The Mother, Gwendolyn Brooks.
Preparing to Write.
Shaping.
Drafting.
Practicing New Criticism.
Forgiving my Father, Lucille Clifton.
Questions.
My Father's Martial Art, Stephen Shu-ning Liu.
Questions.
4. Creating the Text: Reader-Response Criticism.
The Purpose of Reader-Response Criticism.
New Criticism as the Old Criticism.
The Reader Emerges.
Hypertextual Readers.
How to Do Reader-Response Criticism.
Preparing to Respond.
Love Poem #1, Sandra Cisneros.
Making Sense.
Subjective Response.
Receptive Response.
The Writing Process: A Sample Essay.
Preparing to Respond.
A Very Short Story, Ernest Hemmingway.
Preparing to Write.
Shaping.
Drafting.
Practicing Reader-Response Criticism.
Since There's No Help, Michael Drayton.
Questions.
Killing the Bear, Judith Minty. Questions.
5. Opening up the Text: Deconstructive Criticism.
The Purpose of Deconstruction.
How to Do Deconstruction.
Sailing to Byzantium, William Butler Yeats.
The Writing Process: A Sample Essay.
Discovery, Amy Clampitt.
Preparing to Write.
Shaping.
Drafting.
Practicing Deconstructive Criticism.
Cut Through the Anxiety, USC Continuing Education.
London, William Blake.
Questions.
6. Connecting the Text: Historical, Postcolonial, and Cultural Studies.
The Purposes of Historical, Postcolonial, and Cultural Studies.
Biographical and Historical Criticism.
When I Consider How My Light is Spent, John Milton.
Cultural Studies.
New Historicism.
History as Text.
Marxist Criticism.
Postcolonial Studies.
How to Do Historical, Postcolonial, and Cultural Studies
The Writing Process: Sample Essays.
Reunion, John Cheever.
A Biographical Essay.
Preparing toWrite.
Shaping.
Drafting.
A New Historical Essay.
Preparing to Write.
Shaping.
Drafting.
Practicing Historical, Postcolonial, and Cultural Studies
Cartoon, Rowland Wilson.
Cartoon, Stan Hunt.
7. Minding the Work: Psychological Criticism.
The Purpose of Psychological Criticism.
How to Do Psychological Criticism.
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal, William Wordsworth.
The Writing Process: A Sample Essay.
From Hamlet, William Shakespeare.
Preparing to Write.
Shaping.
Drafting.
Practicing Psychological Criticism.
A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, Emily Dickinson.
Questions.
O to Be a Dragon, Marianne Moore.
Questions.
8. Gendering the Text: Feminist Criticism, Post-Feminism, and Queer Theory
The Purpose of Feminist Criticism, Post-Feminism, and Queer Theory
How to Do Feminist Criticism, Post-Feminism, and Queer Theory.
From A Serious Proposal, Mary Astell.
The Writing Process: A Sample Essay.
To Miss_______ On Her Playing the Harpsichord, Samuel Johnson.
Preparing to Respond.
Shaping.
Drafting.
Revision: Gay and Lesbian Criticism.
Practicing Feminist Criticism, Post-Feminism, and Queer Theory Criticism
Shall I Compare Thee, William Shakespeare.
Questions.
My Life had stood, Emily Dickinson.
Questions.
9. Investigating the Work: Research and Documentation.
The Purposes of Research Papers.
The Topic and the Task.
Finding and Using Resources: Internet, Database, Library.
Background Sources.
Bibliographies and Indexes.
Searching On-line.
Securing Resources, Taking Notes, Finding a Thesis.
Drafting and Revising.
The Writing Process: A Sample Research Paper.
Getting Ideas.
Organizing.
Drafting.
Appendix.
The Canonization, John Donne.
Credits.
Index.