Literature in the Modern World: Critical Essays and Documents - Softcover

"A useful collection of critical essays about the study of modern literature in English."--Virginia Quarterly Review "An intelligent and useful sampling of recent reflections on literature. A good text for introductory courses at either the undergraduate or graduate level."--Steven Rendall, University of Oregon "Fills a need that has long been felt by teachers of courses in criticism and theory: an introductory selection of readings in, and a clear schematization of, the key debates in the discipline at present."--D.G. Myers, Texas A&M University "An excellent selection of materials."--Volek Emil, Arizona State University "A very useful text."--Gregory W. Bredbeck, University of California, Riverside "A useful collection of critical essays about the study of modern literature in English."--Virginia Quarterly Review "An intelligent and useful sampling of recent reflections on literature. A good text for introductory courses at either the undergraduate or graduate level."--Steven Rendall, University of Oregon "Fills a need that has long been felt by teachers of courses in criticism and theory: an introductory selection of readings in, and a clear schematization of, the key debates in the discipline at present."--D.G. Myers, Texas A&M University "An excellent selection of materials."--Volek Emil, Arizona State University "A very useful text."--Gregory W. Bredbeck, University of California, Riverside "A useful collection of critical essays about the study of modern literature in English."--Virginia Quarterly Review "An intelligent and useful sampling of recent reflections on literature. A good text for introductory courses at either the undergraduate or graduate level."--Steven Rendall, University of Oregon "Fills a need that has long been felt by teachers of courses in criticism and theory: an introductory selection of readings in, and a clear schematization of, the key debates in the discipline at present."--D.G. Myers, Texas A& M University "An excellent selection of materials."--Volek Emil, Arizona State University "A very useful text."--Gregory W. Bredbeck, University of California, Riverside "A useful collection of critical essays about the study of modern literature in English."--Virginia Quarterly Review "An intelligent and useful sampling of recent reflections on literature. A good text for introductory courses at either the undergraduate or graduate level."--Steven Rendall, University of Oregon "Fills a need that has long been felt by teachers of courses in criticism and theory: an introductory selection of readings in, and a clear schematization of, the key debates in the discipline at present."--D.G. Myers, Texas A&M University "An excellent selection of materials."--Volek Emil, Arizona State University "A very useful text."--Gregory W. Bredbeck, University of California, Riverside

Literature in the Modern World offers a unique combination of English, European, feminist and `new writing', or `Commonwealth', perspectives on literary studies from the 1920s to the 1980s. It is designed to enable students to gain an understanding of the main theoretical issues involved in the study of modern literary texts. The texts upon which the critical essays here focus are - chiefly, but not exclusively, in English. The book includes the view of leading critics and theorists such as Marilyn Butler, Frank Kermode, H 'el `ene Cixous, and Edward Said, as well as the originating voices of Wole Soyinka, Toni Morrison, Seamus Heaney, and Virginia Woolf, and focuses on major critical topics including genre, interpretation, history and criticism, gender, race, and the notion of `Englishness'. This approach derives from a perceived change in what constitutes `English literature' in a period of British imperial decline and takes account of the rise of a radical, questioning critical and literary practice at home and abroad. The more abstract and abstruse contemporary critics are eschewed in favour of extracts of sufficient length, force, and clarity to offer relative newcomers the opportunity of engaging with a wide range of current issues. The book covers the Open University course A319. This book is intended for all Open University third-level course A319 students; teachers, graduate and undergraduate students of twentieth-century literature - English, European, Commonwealth - and of women's studies.