Theoretical Material on Literature

[burntpunk]

Greetings all,

I'm an undergraduate at Liverpool University, and I'm currently overwhelmed by the grandiosity of the literature theory material available; deconstructing through genre, time-periods, perspectives and geography. In order to prosper as both an aspiring author and literary student, I want to explore the greatest theory work on the matter, however I'm at a loss as to how one should initiate such a process. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks for your time.

[kelby_lake]

Greetings all,
I'm an undergraduate at Liverpool University, and I'm currently overwhelmed by the grandiosity of the literature theory material available; deconstructing through genre, time-periods, perspectives and geography. In order to prosper as both an aspiring author and literary student, I want to explore the greatest theory work on the matter, however I'm at a loss as to how one should initiate such a process. Does anybody have any suggestions?


It depends on what you're studying. If you study a particular novel or play, try and get a 'casebook study'- a book that collects together critical essays on that work. It'll give you ideas of which critics you wish to read more of and you get a more even viewpoint.

For Shakespeare, AC Bradley's 'Shakespearean Tragedy' is pretty good. It covers the four major works- Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth and Othello.

[Jeremydav]

You should go to iTunes and search for Paul H. Fry. His introductory lectures on literary theory are free and awesome.

[Silas Thorne]

My previous supervisor put me onto 'Literary Theory: An Introduction' by Terry Eagleton, which seems to me to be quite a good place to start. Plus it is quite short. :) Happy hunting!

[Alexander III]

You should go to iTunes and search for Paul H. Fry. His introductory lectures on literary theory are free and awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YY4CTSQ8nY&feature=BF&list=PLD00D35CBC75941BD&index=1

[Silvia]

Among the things I had to read as a Literature student, these I found particularly helpful:
-Literature, Theory and Common Sense by Antoine Compagnon
-European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages by Ernst Robert Curtius. this is really a work worth reading. In the English preface the author states:

my book is not the product of purely scholarly interests, it grew out of a concern for the preservation of Western Culture. It seeks to serve an understanding of the western cultural tradition in so far as it is manifested in literature. It attempts to illuminate the unity of that tradition in space and time by the application of new methods [...] it has become necessary to demonstrate that unity. But the demonstration can only be made from a universal standpoint. Such a standpoint is afforded by Latinity. Latin was the language of the educated during the thirteen centuries which lie between Virgil and Dante. Without this Latin background, the vernacular literatures of the Middle Ages are incomprehensible.
So, he aims at showing us this Latin continuity through the use of the "scientific technique which is the foundation of all historical investigation: philology", moreover, he also resumes the Goethian idea of Weltliterature by laying the basis for a History of topoi.
- The Rhetoric of Fiction by Wayne C. Booth (especially for the chapters in which he investigates the living matter of neutrality in works of fiction).
Then I would suggest any good manual of Comparative Literature, which will widen your horizon for sure, and Semiotics, too (Peirce, Barthes, Eco, Genette) etc...
-A Study in Words by C. S Lewis. This is not specifically on Literature Theory, it deals with the "semantic biography of words" and helps students realise how easy it is to misunderstand an author when we forget that the words he used in his time may mean something (completely or slightly)different today.
I also read something E. Auerbach wrote on Dante and it was really interesting. His main work is considered to be Mimesis.
I Hope this will help!

[JBI]

The universities will throw lots of angles on it because they need to occupy you for a number of years and need those fees / students to feel that they have learned some substance.

All stories can be reduced to the same core, especially Hollywood (see http://www.youtube.com/user/clickokDOTcoDOTuk ). This is the base of any deconstruction.

Above that you can analyse specific situation, context, words and their meaning etc...which is when it just becomes subjective analysis. "Deconstructing through genre, time-periods, perspectives and geography" etc is just analysing a variety of situations.

Nah, it is basically just what we do when reading. OF course reading is going to have that many possible deconstructions and topical ideas since texts, especially good texts, have that much available to the reader to discuss. It isn't filler, in the sense that if it is in the text, then it is perfect topic for discussion - that there is so much, in lets say Shakespeare, just attests to Shakespeare's possibility, in isn't filler at all, but merely teaching how to read and view things from more "cores" if you put it. The core you think of is actually not being looked at, but is the starting place for looking at things deeper and more complex. The core is, in essence, in deconstruction, language itself, and that which constructs language - from there it complicates, rather than simplifies.