Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction

Michael Ryan's comprehensive textbook on the practice of literary theory demonstrates how the full panoply of theoretical approaches can be used to read the same texts. Designed for introductory criticism courses, either at the advanced undergraduate or at the beginning postgraduate level, it can be used to great advantage in conjunction with Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan's Literary Theory: An Anthology, published by Blackwell in 1998. The key texts examined are: Shakespeare, King Lear; Henry James, The Aspern Papers Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye Elizabeth Bishop's poems At the Fishhouses, The Map, Moose and Sestina. The contending theories range from Formalism, Structuralism, Psychoanalysis, and Marxism, to Post-Structuralism, Feminism, Gender, Queer Theory and Gay/Lesbian Studies, Historicism, Ethnic Studies, Post-colonial and International Studies.