Admiring Criticism

[yer]

Share those literature critics that you admire the most, name those articles or books that make you say, "I wish I could analyze literature like that".

I'm not widely read when it comes to criticism. Still, I found that I like Helen Vendler's The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (such as her analysis on the fourth sonnet).

What about yours?

[laymonite]

I like Dr. Samuel Johnson's criticism of John Milton (criticism from 18th century). Also, Henry Miller's criticism of Rimbaud; Terry Eagleton; Norman Holland's psychoanalytic literary criticism. There are a host of other theorists/critics I enjoy, but they aren't necessarily specific to an author or a literary work. For example, I like the postmodernist critic Jean Baudrillard, though he studies contemporary popular culture.

[Wilde woman]

I second Terry Eagleton. And I rather like Northrop Frye; he had a sense of humor as well as a well-trained critical eye.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Really, mostly when I come to use secondary criticism I sort of use and abuse them; I research heavily for each essay/task and dump them after that. For example my latest Wilde study (dissertation) has be using about 40/50 different texts with about 100/150 different critical points of view - I wouldn't favour one over the other (although some are clearly better than others ;)) I just take little points here and there. The thing is that there is so much criticism out there that you really just have to use what seems appropriate for the task at hand, at least that is my general approach. Certainly I don't see much point in buying too many critical/secondary texts in that is only going to stand one or two essays.

However, there are one or two things that are essential. For example the Norton Anthologies contain so much that is worth while having that it makes sense to get that in. Also I find that Ian Watt's Rise of the Novel to be something of essential reading to anyone interested in the novel on any level, something of a landmark text for me that one.

Edit: oh yes the likes of Terry Eagleton are good eggs. I would also recommend seriously yet again Mr Peter Barry's Beginning Theory for anyone new to literary theory. Go buy. Yes I have a 10% share in the book. Not really. :smilewinkgrin:

[Heteronym]

I'm quite fond of Mikhail Bakhtin; his theory of polyphony has changed the way I interpret novels.

I've also enjoyed Tzvetan Todorov's The Fantastic, his study of fantasy.

However, I'm especially a fan of literary criticism by fellow writers. I value the essays of Borges, Calvino, Kundera and Vidal very much. There's something magical when writers write about literature, especially of their favourite writers. It may not be as comprehensive and systematic as the work of a Harold Bloom, but their love for the subject is palpable.

[Lost_Souls]

I loved Tzvetan Todorov's The Fantastic, the way he systematically looked at the structure of supernatural tales and found the stress points where the tale becomes fantastic, uncanny or marvellous. I find it fascinating when a critical technique opens up the parts of a text which you would otherwise neglect, and submits them to scientific scrutiny. It transforms something like a mere 'ghost story', into a multi-genre, subtly layered work of art.

[JBI]

Helen Gardner's The Art of T. S. Eliot (I think that's what is was called anyway). Read it in Freshman when I was reading Four Quartets and it really helped me along the way.

For Vendler, I like her on Herbert, as I think she is really good at cutting down patterns in their works, and finding the inner workings of poems.

Orientalism really gave me something, in terms of the way to construct Said-like arguments, though the book is rather tedious reading, as most is said within the first 60 pages.

Also, J. Y. Liu's work on Chinese literature, especially The Art of Chinese Poetry had a profound influence on me, as did Stephen Owen and Wilt Idema.

I really couldn't live without my Linda Hutcheon for reading Can-Lit as it pretty much gave the best explanation of Canadian post-modern fiction I have yet encountered, and generally I feel my Hamilton Faerie Queene and Booth Sonnets indispensable.

Adams' Poetic designs also gave me much of my technical vocabulary for poetry, for which I am grateful, and Frye holds a certain place, in terms of helping me conceptualize structure as form.

Other than that, I'd need to go into individual works on individual poets and authors, something which I am not inclined to really do. As it is, there are a series of books, such as Imagined Communities, or certain works by Walter Benjamin that everyone reading theory encounters eventually.

There is a pretty good book out there called 50 literary theorists or something that provides probably the best introductory bibliography for people just starting to read theory seriously, out of lets say the Norton or Terry Eagletons rather meh (in my opinion) introduction. If I recall that one is available for free on line.

Still, can't go wrong with the likes of Cixous, Butler, and De Beauvoir.

Edit:

Contents of 50 key literary theorists:

Table of contents for Fifty key literary theorists / Richard J. Lane.

Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog.

Note: Contents data are machine generated based on pre-publication provided by the publisher. Contents may have variations from the printed book or be incomplete or contain other coding.
Counter

Contents
1. Baker, Houston A., Jr. (1943 ?)
2. Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich (1895 ? 1975)
3. Barthes, Roland (1915 ? 1980)
4. Baudrillard, Jean (1929 ?)
5. Benjamin, Walter (1892 ? 1940)
6. Bhabha, Homi (1949 ?)
7. Bloom, Harold (1930 ?)
8. Booth, Wayne C. (1921 ?)
9. Butler, Judith (1956 ?)
10. Cixous, H¿l¿ne (1937 ?)
11. de Beauvoir, Simone (1908 ? 1986)
12. Deleuze, Gilles (1925 ? 1995)
[and Guattari, Pierre F¿lix (1930 ?)]
13. de Man, Paul (1919 ? 1983)
14. Derrida, Jacques (1930 ? 2004)
15. Eagleton, Terry (1943 ?)
16. Empson, (Sir) William (1906 ? 1984)
17. Fanon, Frantz Omar (1925 ? 1961)
18. Felman, Shoshana (1942 ?)
19. Fish, Stanley (1938 ?)
20. Foucault, Michel (1920 ? 1984)
21. Freud, Sigmund (1856 ? 1939)
22. Frye, Northrop (1912 ? 1991)
23. Gadamer, Hans-Georg (1900 ? 2003)
24. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. (1950 ?)
25. Genette, G¿rard (1930 ?)
26. Gilbert, Sandra Mortola (1936 ?)
[& Gubar, Susan David (1944 ?)]
27. Gilroy, Paul (1956 ?)
28. Greenblatt, Stephen (1943 ?)
29. Haraway, Donna (1944 ?)
30. Hartman, Geoffrey H. (1929 ?)
31. Hutcheon, Linda (1947 ?)
32. Irigaray, Luce (1934 ?)
33. Iser, Wolfgang (1926 ?)
34. Jakobsen, Roman Osipovisch (1896 ? 1982)
35. Jameson, Fredric R. (1934 ?)
36. Kermode, Frank (1919 ?)
37. Kristeva, Julia (1941 ?)
38. Lacan, Jacques-Marie Emile (1901 ? 1981)
39. Leavis, Frank Raymond (1895 ? 1978)
40. Luk cs, Georg (Gy¿rgy) (1885-1971)
41. Lyotard, Jean-Fran¿ois (1924 ? 1998)
42. McLuhan, Herbert Marshall (1911 ? 1980)
43. Propp, Vladimir Iakovlevich (1895 ? 1970)
44. Richards, Ivor Armstrong (1893 ? 1979)
45. Ricoeur, Paul (1913 ?)
46. Said, Edward W. (1935 ?)
47. Showalter, Elaine (1941 ?)
48. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (1941 ?)
49. Trilling, Lionel (1905 ? 1975)
50. ?i?ek, Slavoj (1949 ?)

Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication:

Criticism -- Bio-bibliography.
Criticism -- History -- 20th century.

[laymonite]

Alors! I forgot about anthologies! I read through the Blackwell publication of Literary Theory: An Introduction as couple years back. Now, as I narrow the focus, I am going through the Norton Anthology of American Postmodern Fiction. It has some great theoretical pieces by Cixous, Baudrillard (*), et al.

Anthologies are terrific because you can get a feel for the array of thoughts, then settle on an author that stands out to you and dig into their work.

[Seasider]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Virginia Woolf. The Common Reader (2 volumes) and A Room of One's Own are most interesting and enlightening. And unlike Terry Eagleton and many others previously cited, she is a great writer.

[laymonite]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Virginia Woolf. The Common Reader (2 volumes) and A Room of One's Own are most interesting and enlightening. And unlike Terry Eagleton and many others previously cited, she is a great writer.
I second A Room of One's Own. Her criticism of John Milton within the text is rich.

[Modest Proposal]

So many greats have been named, I just want to point out a specific and brilliant piece of criticism: D H Lawrence's "Studies in Classic American Literature."
Anything by Samuel Johnson is great especially the Metaphysical poets and intro to Shakespeare.
Eliot's 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' is great along with his praise of Kipling. Also 'To Criticize the Critic.'
Gardner's book 'On Moral Fiction' is audacious and genius.
It's more theory driven, but Barbara Johnson's 'Melville's Fist' is outstanding.
Pope's 'An Essay on Criticism' is also interesting.
Oscar Wilde's 'The Critic as Artist' is a must.
Nietzsche on Wagner is not always right in my mind but certainly astounding.