Literary Theory

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Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2009 - Literary Criticism - 196 pages

What 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
Identity Identification and the Subject
149
Theoretical Schools and Movements
164
References
176
Further Reading
182
Index
188
Picture Credits
194
Copyright

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About the author (2009)

JONATHAN CULLER is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cornell University and has authored many publications.

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