Beginning Theory

Beginning theory has been helping students navigate through the thickets of literary and cultural theory for well over a decade now. This new and expanded third edition continues to offer students and readers the best one-volume introduction to the field. The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unravelled. Unlike many books which assume certain positions about the critics and the theories they represent, Peter Barry allows readers to develop their own ideas once first principles and concepts have been grasped. The book has been updated and includes two new chapters, one of which (Literary theory - a history in ten events) innovatively surveys the course of theory, while the other (Theory after 'Theory') maps the arrival of new 'isms' since the second edition appeared in 2002. Liberal humanism - Structuralism - Post-structuralism and deconstruction - Postmodernism - Psychoanalytic criticism - Feminist criticism - Lesbian/gay criticism - Marxist criticism - New historicism and cultural materialism - Postcolonial criticism - Stylistics - Narratology - Ecocriticism - Presentism/Transversal poetics/ New aestheticism/Historical formalism/Cognitive poetics.

ISBN 0719079276   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780719079276 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 340 Publisher Manchester University Press   Published in Manchester Imprint Manchester University Press   Series title Beginnings Format Paperback   Previous ISBN 9780719062681 Publication date 01 Nov 2008   Height (mm) 198 Library of Congress PN81   Width (mm) 129 DEWEY 801.95   Spine width (mm) 15 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Tertiary education, Professional / Scholarly Pages 352

		Introduction		1
1		Theory before 'theory' - liberal humanism		11
2		Structuralism		38
3		Post-structuralism and deconstruction		59
4		Postmodernism		78
5		Psychoanalytic criticism		92
6		Feminist criticism		116
7		Lesbian/gay criticism		134
8		Marxist criticism		150
9		New historicism and cultural materialism		166
10		Postcolonial criticism		185
11		Stylistics		196
12		Narratology		214
13		Ecocriticism		239
14		Literary theory - a history in ten events		262
15		Theory after 'Theory'		287
		Appendices		318
App. 1		Edgar Allan Poe, 'The Oval Portrait'		318
App. 2		Dylan Thomas, 'A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London'		321
App. 3		William Cowper, 'The Castaway'		322
		Where do we go from here? Further reading		325
		Index		331

Always reassuringly urbane, and often witty...Barry's book remains important, especially as a work of mediation between those who would innately be inclined to 'take' or 'leave' theory. -- Martin Blocksidge. The Use of English: The English Association Journal for Teacher of English 20120301

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