The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism 2e

Product Information

Forty-eight NEW selections—concentrated mostly on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—make the book not only the best overview of the history of theory, but also a remarkably up-to-date portrait of the state of theory today. It was where I first met the likes of Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Freud, and scores of other cultural critics. I look forward to reading more from it, if I ever have time, and I'm sure it will be a valuable reference tool for the future.

Belongs on the bookcase of every liberal arts, humanities, philosophy, literature or cultural studies enthusiast. For me, the largest weakness of this anthology is that aside from a very brief synopsis (that at times confuses more than elucidates) in the introductions, each essay or section(s) from a book is simply given with no further explanation.I grabbed this highly regarded anthology hoping to discover or brush up on rewarding ways of thinking about literature. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. These (glaring) omissions make possible the inclusion of what is probably an excessive number of hip Europeans and North Americans who are products of the cultural studies movement but, though I love them, aren't nearly as important long-term as, say, Émile Zola, Oswald de Andrade or Octavio Paz. I find it especially helpful that they have alternative table of contents listing content according to schools and movements, genres and subjects.

O. Matthiessen and the Politics of Criticism (U of Wisconsin Press), and Literary Criticism, 1900-1950: The Cambridge History of American Literature (Cambridge UP) as well as the editor or co-editor of several college textbooks, including An Introduction to Literature (Longman), American Literature (Penguin), The Little, Brown Reader (Longman), and Literature for Composition (Longman). Unfortunately because there is so much information the hard cover version is printed in tiny, tiny type on wafer-thin paper. A book that has served me well for my English undergraduate degree; a great wealth and variety of philosophers' and theorists' seminal texts along with biographical information and explanation of major themes.A foremost historian of contemporary literary criticism and theory, he is the author of the standard history, American Literary Criticism from the 1930s to the 1980s as well as Deconstructive Criticism and Cultural Criticism , Literary Theory , Poststructuralism (all three books published by Columbia UP), Postmodernism: Local Effects, Global Flows (SUNY Press), Theory Matters (Routledge), Living with Theory (Blackwell), and American Literary Criticism since the 1930s , 2nd edition (Routledge). Minor personal quibble would be a lack of work from Jung (which was included in the previous edition, but sadly not this) or Goethe/Schopenhauer, yet selection is of course a personal taste. The pages do crumple and fold somewhat readily, although some might suggest that a well loved book needs a little wear and tear. I do think it's far to say I will never forget some of what I've learned, and I think more and more aspects of these theories will pop up in my life as I go along. This is a monstrous anthology; it was used as the primary textbook for my Critical Theory and Literary Criticism course (ENGL 602 at University of Maryland).