The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism [Hardcover]

Vincent B. Leitch (Editor), William E. Cain (Editor), Laurie A. Finke (Editor), Barbara E. Johnson (Editor), John McGowan (Editor), Jeffrey J. Williams (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393974294 | ISBN-13: 978-0393974294 | Publication Date: June 2001 | Edition: First Edition, Fourth Printing

The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism presents a staggeringly varied collection of the most influential critical statements from the classical era to the present day.

Edited by scholars and teachers whose interests range from the history of poetics to postmodernism, from classical rhetoric to ériture féminine, and from the social construction of gender to the machinery of academic superstardom, The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism promises to become the standard anthology in its field.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Vincent B. Leitch is a George Lynn Cross Research Professor at the University of Oklahoma where he holds the Paul and Carol Daube Sutton Chair in English. A foremost historian of contemporary literary criticism and theory, he is the author of the standard history, American Literary Criticism from the 1930s to the 1980s as well as Deconstructive Criticism and Cultural Criticism, Literary Theory, Poststructuralism (all three books published by Columbia UP), Postmodernism: Local Effects, Global Flows (SUNY Press), Theory Matters (Routledge), Living with Theory (Blackwell), and American Literary Criticism since the 1930s, 2nd edition (Routledge).

William E. Cain is the Mary Jewett Gaiser Professor of English at Wellesley College. A scholar of American literature and American literary criticism, Professor Cain is the author of The Crisis in Criticism: Theory, Literature, and Reform in English Studies (Johns Hopkins UP), F. O. Matthiessen and the Politics of Criticism (U of Wisconsin Press), and Literary Criticism, 1900-1950: The Cambridge History of American Literature (Cambridge UP) as well as the editor or co-editor of several college textbooks, including An Introduction to Literature (Longman), American Literature (Penguin), The Little, Brown Reader (Longman), and Literature for Composition (Longman).

Laurie A. Finke is Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program at Kenyon College. A prominent medievalist and feminist critic, Professor Finke is the author of Cinematic Illuminations: The Middle Ages on Film (Johns Hopkins UP), King Arthur and the Myth of History (University Press of Florida), Feminist Theory, Women’s Writing (Cornell UP) and Women’s Writing in English: The Middle Ages (Longman) and the editor of Medieval Texts and Contemporary Readers (Cornell UP).

Barbara E. Johnson was the Frederic Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society at Harvard University. She was a leading figure in contemporary literary theory and the author of The Critical Difference: Essays in Contemporary Rhetoric of Reading (Johns Hopkins UP), A World of Difference (Johns Hopkins UP), The Wake of Deconstruction (Blackwell), The Feminist Difference: Literature, Psychology, Race and Gender (Harvard UP), Mother Tongues: Sexuality, Trials, Motherhood, Translation (Harvard UP), and Persons and Things (Harvard UP). She was also the translator of Jacques Derrida’s Dissemination (U of Chicago P) and Stéphane Mallarmé’s Divagations (Harvard UP/Belknap Press).

John McGowan is the Ruel W. Tyson, Jr. Distinguished Professor of the Humanities and Director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A leading critic of postmodernism and social theories relating to literature, he is the author of Postmodernism and its Critics (Cornell UP), Hannah Arendt: A Critical Introduction (U of Minnesota P), Democracy’s Children: Intellectuals and the Rise of Cultural Politics (Cornell UP), and American Liberalism: An Interpretation for Our Time (UNC Press), and editor (with Craig Calhoun) of Hannah Arendt and the Meaning of Politics (U of Minnesota P).

Jeffrey J. Williams is Professor of English and of Literary and Cultural Studies at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of Theory and the Novel: Narrative Reflexivity in the English Tradition (Cambridge UP) and the editor of PC Wars: Politics and Theory in the Academy (Routledge), The Institution of Literature (SUNY Press), and Critics at Work: Interviews (NYU Press). He has also published journalism in venues such as The Village Voice, Dissent, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Since 1992, he has been the editor of the literary and critical journal, the minnesota review.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 2624 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition, Fourth Printing edition (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393974294
• ISBN-13: 978-0393974294
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the Big League, August 29, 2002

By 

oh_pete (Cambridge. MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (Hardcover)

It strikes me as dangerously presumptuous to "review" such a book without a Ph.D. in literature and thirty years' teaching experience, but after spending a semester as a course assistant for just such a person, I can say this is an ambitious, comprehensive and therefore weighty (in all senses) volume. Beginning a hair's breadth before Plato and bringing us all the way into the 1990s and issues of "hypertext," this first giant Norton effort in the theory and criticism line seems to do all it sets out to do. The excellent introduction nips so-called antitheorists in the bud, remarking, "there is no position free of theory, not even the one called `common sense.'" It also welcomes the student intent on discovering the many and varied ways to examine literature for both enjoyment and edification, terms that we sometimes forget are not mutually exclusive.

Fully half the book is given over to theorists and critics of the twentieth century, which makes sense since far more than half of what we would call literary criticism was written during it. My personal hope is that this new century gives birth to an understanding of theory that realizes, as do the Norton editors, that from the point of view of the student, each theory is essentially a lens through which to view a given work of art, literature, or the world in general. As for the point of view of some professionals who may tend towards the territorial, let's be charitable and remember that they have to work for a living, too. In any event, which lenses work the best on which student's eyes can truly be discovered only when a few different pairs have been tried on.

My professor friend notes that the selections from many key writers are longer than those found in the Hazard Adams' texts she used in the past. This density makes even a two-semester survey difficult to plan, syllabus-wise, mostly because there are so many wonderful and important critics to cover and ideas to absorb. My semi-professional advice would be to bring your love of literature and all your intellectual curiosity to "The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism," but also remember to take deep breaths once in a while and never forget your sense of humor!

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing collection of essential Literary Criticism, July 14, 2005

By 

Q (Q Continuum) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (Hardcover)

This is one of the few comprehensive anthologies of literary theory on the market now, and among the best. THE CRITICAL TRADITION, ed. David Richter, is also very good. But CRITICAL THEORY SINCE PLATO, ed. by Adams, is out of date, and LITERARY THEORY, ed. by Rivkin and Ryan, is not well-edited, giving only short selections, and not comprehensive, with no coverage of classic criticism. Unlike some previous reviewers, I find that the Norton covers well the pre-twentieth century periods. But the coverage of the modern period, while wide-ranging, is still incomplete. The editors, as is typical with norton anthologies, try to cover too much, and end up leaving out some of the most important writers and works. There are too many essays by currently fashionable yet ultimately obscure post-colonial, race, queer, gender, and pop culture theorists. There is nothing here by Brecht on his famous "alienation effect." Where is Shklovsky's great essay on "defamiliarization"? Rene Girard, indubitably one of the most important theorists of the twentieth century, is completely missing in action--a rather shocking omission. Rey Chow, one of the most important post-colonial theorists is also missing. Major players Greenblatt, Bakhtin, Eagleton, Gilbert & Gubar, Showalter, DuBois, Henry Louis Gates, Derrida, Wolfgang Iser are included, but the editors do not always select their most important works. Like all the Norton anthologies, it is printed on onion skin paper which is so thin you can easily see through to the next page. Hopefully the editors will correct some of these faults in future editions; meanwhile this is still one of the best anthologies of literary theory available and essential for all English majors and teachers. But consider also THE CRITICAL TRADITION edited by Richter.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Available Twentieth Century Anthology, February 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (Hardcover)

While this is undoubtedly the best anthology of its kind I am aware of and, as other reviewers note, the selection of twentieth century theorists is extremely rich, I do find that that it isn't as strong as I had hoped on earlier periods. Inevitably, no anthology could ever be all-inclusive, but it is surprising when someone like Carlyle, for instance, who is mentioned in a number of the introductory prefaces, doesn't warrant an entry in his own right. Nor is there any Ruskin, which is a *huge* hole. I was also surprised that the Romantic Theory section did not have a selection of Keats' theorising- a very strange omission indeed.

If you are predominantly interested in pre-twentieth century theory, this is not your oracle. From a glance at the index, it's obvious that more than half the anthology is twentieth century material. Perhaps, given the profusion of criticism in the twentieth century, two volumes would have achieved a more effective historical survey. That said, as a twentieth century anthology, this is exemplary. The indexes, bibliographies, tables of content,etc render the material much easier to negotiate than one would have expected and the introductory prefaces which appear before each author's selection are concise, insightful and would be especially useful for students struggling with some of this material for the first time. These prefaces open up further trails of enquiry both within and beyond the anthology, allowing readers to easily pinpoint the relevant theorists for their areas of interest.