Offering a refreshing combination of accessibility and intellectual rigor, How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies presents an up-to-date, concise, and wide-ranging historicist survey of contemporary thinking in critical theory. Ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in literary and critical theory, this is the only book of its kind that thoroughly merges literary studies with cultural studies, including film. Robert Dale Parker provides a critical look at the major movements in literary studies since the 1930s, including those often omitted from other texts. He includes chapters on New Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Queer Studies, Marxism, Historicism and Cultural Studies, Postcolonial and Race Studies, and Reader Response. Parker weaves connections among chapters, showing how these different ways of thinking respond to and build upon each other. Through these exchanges, he prepares students to join contemporary dialogues in literary and cultural studies. Parker's engaging writing style relates directly to today's students and their daily lives. He underscores the connections between critical theory and students' other coursework, as well as its links to their technologically filled lives. The text is enhanced by charts, text boxes that address frequently asked questions, photos, and a bibliography. Intellectually challenging yet remarkably readable--and devoted to the interpretation of both literary and cultural studies--How to Interpret Literature stands out from other surveys of critical theory. Its flexible format makes this volume ideal as either a stand-alone text or in conjunction with an anthology of primary readings.

Preface Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. New Criticism How to Interpret: Key Concepts from New Critical Interpretation Historicizing the New Criticism: Rethinking Literary Unity The Intentional Fallacy and the Affective Fallacy How to Interpret: A New Critical Example Chapter 3. Structuralism Structuralism in Cultural and Literary Studies The Structuralist Study of Narrative: Narratology Narrative Syntax, Metaphor and Metonymy Chapter 4. Deconstruction Writing, Speech, and Differance Deconstruction beyond Derrida Deconstruction, Essentialism, and Identity How to Interpret: More Deconstructive Examples Chapter 5. Psychoanalysis The Psychoanalytic Understanding of the Mind Sigmund Freud How to Interpret: Models of Psychoanalytic Interpretation From the Interpretation of Dreams to the Interpretation of Literature Jacques Lacan Chapter 6. Feminism Early Feminist Criticism Sex and Gender Feminisms How to Interpret: Feminist Examples Feminism and Visual Pleasure Chapter 7. Queer Studies How to Interpret: A Queer Studies Example Queer Studies and History Outing: Writers, Characters, and the Literary Closet Homosociality and Heterosexual Panic How to Interpret: Another Queer Studies Example Chapter 8. Marxism Contemporary Marxism, Ideology, and Agency How to Interpret: Marxist Examples Chapter 9. Historicism and Cultural Studies New Historicism Michel Foucault Cultural Studies How to Interpret: Cultural Studies, Historicism, and Literature Chapter 10. Postcolonial and Race Studies Postcolonialism From Orientalism to Deconstruction: Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Race Studies: Postcolonial Theory and the Construction of Race How to Interpret: Postcolonial and Race Studies Examples Chapter 11. Reader Response Afterword Works Cited Further Reading Index

"I prefer this book, with its lucid summary of major movements and deep insight into how different critics used or rejected theory, to every comparable book I'm aware of in the field. How to Interpret Literature offers a historical account of theory that's genuinely historical, and not simply a list of major concepts associated with different theoretical schools. Robert Dale Parker explains how theoretical arguments develop over time, how new theories build on older arguments, and how theoretical arguments blend and overlap. He never loses sight of a larger, highly original argument, about the necessary relation between critical thinking and everyday life." --Barry Faulk, Florida State University |k No