Literary TheoryWhat is literary theory? Is there a relationship between literature and culture? In fact, what is literature…and does it matter? These are the kinds of questions Jonathan Culler addresses, and he illuminates a subject often perceived as impenetrable. In addition to outlining the ideas behind various schools (including deconstruction, semiotics, structuralism, and post-colonialism), he offers insights into theories about the nature of language, meaning, interpretation, poetics, rhetoric, narrative, and readership.
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Contents
What Is Theory? | 1 |
What Is Literature and Does It Matter? | 23 |
Literature and Cultural Studies | 55 |
Language Meaning and Interpretation | 75 |
Rhetoric Poetics and Poetry | 95 |
Narrative | 113 |
Performative Language | 131 |
Common terms and phrases
Althusser American analysis become called CHAPTER characters claims concept constative constructed context conventions create Criticism critique crucial cultural studies debate deconstruction defined desire discourses discursive practices effects example experience feminism feminist fictional focalized Foucault function gender genre Gérard Genette Hamlet hermeneutics historical idea identified identity individual instance interpretation Jacques Derrida Jonathan Culler Judith Butler language linguistic literary studies literary theory literature London Louis Althusser lyric Madame Bovary Marxist meaning metaphor metonymy Michel Foucault narrator nature nonliterary norms notion novels object particular performative performative utterance philosopher plot poem poet poetics poetry political popular culture possible post-structuralism produced psychoanalysis queer theory question readers recent theory relation rhetorical role Roman Jakobson Rousseau Routledge Saussure sense sentence sexual signifying social sort speak speaker speech acts story structure tell theoretical theorists things thought tion treated University Press utterance woman words writing York