Modern criticism and theory: a reader. / Second edition
Date
1999
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Longman
Abstract
Description
This book is a companion volume, and in some sense a sequel, to my 20th Century Literary Criticism: A Reader, which was published by Longman in 1972. As such books go, 20th Century Literary Criticism has been very successful. It has sold some 35,000 copies to date, and is used as a textbook in universities and colleges all around the world. Fifteen years later, however, it seems, not surprisingly, a little dated, and in need of supplementation. The most recent essay included in it ( Frank Kermode "'Objects, Jokes and Art'") was first published in 1966. An enormous amount of important criticism and literary theory has been published since then, and entire new schools or movements have arisen (for example, deconstruction, reader-response criticism, feminist criticism). Moreover, much of this work has built upon or reacted against an intellectual tradition that
goes back well before 1966, but was barely reflected in 20th Century Literary Criticism -- the tradition, loosely speaking, of 'structuralism'.
Keywords
History, Criticism, Literarure