Email this article 
Hide
Show all
Literary Theory and Criticism: An Unaffordable Buzzword in English Literature?
Abstract
The rise of literary theory has brought in stylistic obscurity and arguments full of theoretical discourses in literary studies with creative writing being read through the lens of critical theories rooted in such diverse disciplines as philosophy, psychology, economics and linguistics causing the twin effects of a broadening of critical approaches as well as a hiatus between literary texts and theoretical perspectives so much so that some scholars like Dave Ellis and Martin Ellis have come to question the very validity of theory-informed critiques of literature. Critics are fascinated by new theories, each time they emerged breaking the shell of the former one. Failing to convince both sides, theory always faced opposition. What makes critical theory an inevitable constituent of sophisticated courses in social disciplines is the fact about language that meaning cannot be usual or fixed. Moreover, language is subject to change when received at different ends it can be received with alterations making literary interpretations far from the objective results. This article discusses how theory changed the world of literature. Further, it establishes an argument; is literary theory necessary? Or have theories become unaffordable brands in literary studies?
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adams, H. (1971). Critical theory since Plato. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Auerbach, E., & Trask, W. R. (2003). Mimesis: The representation of reality in Western literature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Baldick, Chris. (1987). In Frankenstein’s Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth- Century Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barthes, R., & Heath, S. (1977). Image, music, text. New York: Hill and Wang.
Bataille, G. (1973). Literature and evil. London: Calder and Boyars.
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge.
Belsey, C. (1980). Critical Practice, London: Methuen.
Bennett, A. ed. (1995). Readers and Reading. London: Longman.
Bennett, A.(2005). The Author. London: Routledge.
Bennett, T. (1979). Formalism and Marxism. London: Methuen.
Bergson, H., Brereton, C., & Rothwell, F. (1911). Laughter: An essay on the meaning of the comic. New York: Macmillan.
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge.
Brooker, P., ed. (1992). Modernism/Postmodernism. London: Longman.
Burgass, C. (1999). Challenging theory: Discipline after deconstruction. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
Burke, S. (1998). The Death and Return of the Author: Criticism and Subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault and Derrida. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Burke, S., ed. (1995). Authorship: From Plato to the Postmodern: A Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Buse, P. and Andrew S., eds. (1999). Ghosts: Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, History. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.
Butler, J. P. (1997). Further Reflections on Conversations of Our Time. Diacritics, 27(1), 13-15.
Charles A. W. (1989). A Theory of Argumentation. Alabama. University of Alabama Press.
Culler, J. (1997). Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Deleuze, G., Smith, D. W., & Greco, M. A. (1997). Gilles Deleuze: Essays critical and clinical. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Delgado, R., and Jean S., (2001).Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. New York: New York University Press.
Derrida, J., & SPIVAK, G. C. (1980). Of grammatology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Eagleton, T. (1996). Literary Theory. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Eagleton, T. (1976). Marxism and Literary Criticism. London: Routledge.
Eagleton, T. (1996). Literary Theory: An Introduction, 2nd edn. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Eagleton, T. (2003). After Theory, London: Allen Lane.
Foucault, M. (1979). ‘What Is an Author?’ in Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-Structuralist Criticism, ed. Josué V. Harari. London: Methuen.
Foucault, M. (1973). The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York: Vintage.
Fowler, R. (1986). Linguistic Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Freud, S., & Strachey, J. (1985). Psychopathic Characters on the Stage. Pelican Freud LIbrary, 14.
Freud, S., & Strachey, J. (1986). The Resistances to Psychoanalysis. Pelican Freud LIbrary, 15.
Freud, S., & Strachey, J. (1986). Psychoanalysis. Pelican Freud LIbrary, 15.
Freud, S., Strachey, J., Richards, A., Dickson, A., & Breuer, J. (1990). The Penguin Freud Library. London: Penguin Books.
Groden, M. and Martin K., eds. (1994). The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Dahms, H. (2008). Current Perspectives in Social Theory. Current Perspectives in Social Theory, 25, 0278-1204. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
Horkheimer, M. (1972).Critical Theory: Selected Essays Continuum International Publishing Group.
–––, 1982. Critical Theory, New York: Seabury Press.
Ellis, John M.(1989). Against Deconstruction. New Jersey. Princeton University Press.
Lemon Lee T. and Reis, Marion J. Eds. (1965). Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Lentricchia, F. (1980). After the New Criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lukács, G.(1971). The Theory of the Novel.1920. Trans. Anna Bostock. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.
Macey, D. (2000). The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. London: Penguin.
Macherey, P. (1978). A Theory of Literary Production, trans. Geoffrey Wall. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Makaryk, Irena R., ed. (1993). Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Mitchell W.J. T., (1985). Against Theory, University of Chicago Press Ltd. London.
Mulhern, Francis, ed. 1992. Contemporary Marxist Literary Criticism. London: Longman.
Raymond G. (1981). The Idea of a Critical Theory. Habermas and the Frankfurt School. Cambridge University Press.
Richards, I. A. (1926). Principles of Literary Criticism. New York: Harcourt, Brace, London: Kegan Paul Trench, Trubner.
Rice, P., & Waugh, P. (1992). Modern literary theory: A reader. London: Edward Arnold.
Richter, David H. Ed. (1998). The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. 2nd Ed. Bedford Books: Boston.
Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Michael.Eds. (1998). Literary Theory: An Anthology. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell.
Robert, W. W. (2003). Adorno on Popular Culture, New York: Routledge
Robert, C. S (1983).In the Spirit of Hegel: A Study of G. W. F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.New York, Oxford University Press.
Rolleston J. (2009). Theodor W. Adorno: An Introduction: Gerhard Schweppenhäuse, trans.: Duke University Press
Showalter, Elaine. Ed. (1986). The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature, and Theory. London: Virago.
Sim, S. (1995).The A–Z Guide to Modern Literary and Cultural Theorists. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Tucker, R. C., Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1978). The Marx-Engels reader. New York: Norton.
Tyson, Lois. (2011). Using Critical Theory. New York: Routledge.
Veeser, H. Aram, ed. (1994). The New Historicism Reader. New York: Routledge
Wellek, R. and Warren, A. (1956). Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Wellek, R. (1963). Literary Theory, Criticism, and History in Concepts of Criticism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Wolfreys, J., ed. (2002). The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia of Modern Criticism and Theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Wright, E., ed. (1992). Feminism and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Dictionary. Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell.
Young, R. (1981). Untying the text: A post-structuralist reader. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.3p.226
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
2012-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature
To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the journal emails into your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.