Product Description
First published in 1983, "Literary Theory: An Introduction" is probably the best-selling work of literary criticism in the world today. It propelled its author to a position of such influence and controversy within the British academy that even Prince Charles once described him as 'that dreadful Terry Eagleton'. A quarter of a century on from its original publication, "Literary Theory: An Introduction" still conjures the subversion, excitement and exoticism that characterized theory through the 1960s and 70s, when it posed an unprecedented challenge to the literary establishment. Contemporary readers seeking to understand what literature is and what it is for will be inspired and entertained by Eagleton's deft synopses of the major movements in literary studies in the twentieth century.Eagleton has added a new preface to this anniversary edition to address more recent developments in literary studies, including what he describes as 'the growth of a kind of anti-theory', and the idea that literary theory has been institutionalized. Insightful and enlightening, "Literary Theory: An Introduction" remains the essential guide to the field.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Publisher
Updated to include recent intellectual trends."This concise and lucid volume offers a satisfying survey of all the major theories, from structuralism in the 1960s to deconstruction today, that have made academic criticism both intriguing and off-putting to the outsider." New York Times Book Review
"The best handbook to those arcane ics and isms, both for academy members and for any civilians who, having heard the distant roar of professorial cannons, might wonder what the skirmishing's about." Voice Literary Supplement
"Literary Theory has the kind of racy readibility that one associates more often with English critics who have set their faces resolutely against theory. . . . It's not just a brilliant polemical essay, it's also a remarkable feat of condensation, explication, and synthesis. I haven't read anything in the field of literary theory that was at the same time so stimulating and so entertaining since the Polemical Introduction to Northrup Frye's Anatomy of Criticism." London Sunday Times
"A brilliant, agile performance: urgent and racy, witty and combative, lucid and compelling." New Statesman (UK)
"A concise guide to the most interesting and mystifying trends in the study of literature over the last fifty years." The Nation
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