Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

David Lodge (Author), Nigel Wood (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0582312876 | ISBN-13: 978-0582312876 | Publication Date: August 20, 1999 | Edition: 2

'In our era, criticism is not merely a library of secondary aids to the understanding and appreciation of literary texts, but also a rapidly expanding body of knowledge in its own right.' (David Lodge)

This new edition of David Lodge's Modern Criticism and Theory is fully revised and expanded to take account of the developments of theoretical and general interest in contemporary literary criticism since publication of the first edition in 1988.

Building on the strengths of the first edition, the volume is designed to introduce the reader to the guiding concepts of present literary and cultural debate by presenting substantial extracts from the period's most seminal thinkers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

'in our era, criticism is not merely a library of secondary aids to the understanding and appreciation of literary texts, but also a rapidly expanding body of knowledge in its own right'

David Lodge

This new edition of David Lodge's Modern Criticism and Theory is fully revised and expanded to take account of the developments in theoretical contemporary literary criticism since the publication of the first edition in 1988. Building on the strengths of the first edition, this volume is designed to introduce the reader to the guiding concepts of present literary and cultural debate by presenting substantial extracts from the most seminal thinkers. As with the original edition there is a selection of the most important and representative work from the major schools in contemporary criticism.

Concise introductions with updated suggestions for further reading give a context for each essay and the editors have provided footnotes that help explain the most difficult references. Both students and general readers are encouraged to identify for themselves links between essays, as the selection is ordered both historically and thematically.

About the Author

David Lodge is Honorary Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Birmingham, where he taught from 1960 until 1987, when he became a full-time writer. He is well-known as a novelist, and has also written screenplays and stageplays. He edited 2oth Century Literary Criticism (Longman, 1972) which has become a companion volume to Modern Criticism and Theory.

Nigel Wood is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at De Montfort University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Longman; 2 edition (August 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0582312876
• ISBN-13: 978-0582312876
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Anthology of short essays and excerpts, November 13, 2005

By 

Hesper23 "Grad student" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This "Reader" is a collection of some of the most influential and famous essays, or exerpts of larger works, by critics of the past 100 years. The works that are anthologized include: Ferdinand de Saussure's "Nature of the Linguistic Sign," Gerard Genette's "Structuralism and Literary Criticism," Roland Barthes's "The Death of the Author," Edward Said's "Crisis in Orientalism," and even Umberto Eco's "Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage." As far I can tell, the collection begins after New Criticism, although there are essays from the Russian Formalists. If you're interested in Structuralism/Semiology, Deconstructionism, Reader-response, Feminism, and Cultural Studies, then this anthology will work well for you.

This book is extremely useful to readers who are interested in literary criticism, and who do not necessarily want to do library searches to find the particular essay. The short biography of the author, as well as the "cross-reference" notes at the end of the biography, are helpful too. A similar anthology is *Literary Theory: An Anthology* edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, which also collects the highlights of the theorists's work. However, I prefer Professor Lodge's book because 1) it more engaging, 2) it is smaller and more manageable.

---------------Theorists who are listed-------------------

Ferdinand de Saussure's "Nature of the Linguistic Sign"
Victor Shlovsky
Roman Jacobson
Gerard Genette
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Derrida
Mikhail Bakhtin
Tzvetan Todorov
Roland Barthes's "The Death of the Author," "Textual Analysis: Poe's 'Valdemar'"
Michel Foucault's "What is an Author?"
Wolfgang Iser's "The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach"
Julia Kristeva
Harold Bloom
E D Hirsch Jr
M H Abrams
J Hillis Miller
Helene Cixous
Edward Said
Stanley Fish
Elaine Showalter
Paul De Man
Fredric Jameson
Terry Eagleton's "Capitalism, Modernism and Postmodernism"
Catherine Belsey
Geoffrey Hartman
Juliet Mitchell
Colin MacCabe
Umberto Eco

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful for getting into theory, especially for undergraduates, December 21, 2008

By 

etal erehcse - See all my reviews

This review is from: Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This is by far one of the most useful textbooks I have used. I got it for a class a year ago and have used it as a supplement for nearly every class and paper since. The presentation makes the high-strung contemporary theory very accessible and the editors have done well to include a very broad scope of topics and positions, while maintaining a manageable size. It is very possible to read all of the essays, and each is very salient. I'm sure the 3rd edition (which has recently been released) only improves on all counts, most significantly in terms of including more and more contemporary critics. However, it is not necessary to shell out the extra $40 or so for a copy of that 3rd edition, or a brand new copy of of 2nd, when a used but immaculate 2nd edition will cost about $10 with shipping. The 2nd edition offers a very comprehensive--but not over-exhaustive--reading of trends in contemporary theory. I would recommend it for anyone interested in becoming familiar with critical theory, postmodernisms, contemporary literary theory etc; it is very, very worth it, especially if you want to be able to investigate literary philosophies and add an otherwise unavailable depth to your present studies.