Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Welcome to the Big League, August 29, 2002
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!
|
|
|
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing collection of essential Literary Criticism, July 14, 2005
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.
|
|
|
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Available Twentieth Century Anthology, February 25, 2003
By A Customer
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.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Charles E. Bressler
See all 40 books citing this book
