The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 8, From Formalism to Poststructuralism

Volume 8 of The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism deals with the most influential and hotly debated areas of literary theory: those developing in Europe but having their main impact in the Anglo-American world of academic literary studies, whose course they have fundamentally redirected. The structuralism, poststructuralism, Russian formalism, semiotics, narratology, hermeneutics, phenomenology, reception theory, and speech act theory associated with European writers including Barthes, Todorov, Derrida, and Iser, are here described in the context of their original development, but with an eye also to their eventual influence; and the volume includes a reflective chapter by Richard Rorty on deconstruction. Incorporating full bibliographies, this volume engages systematically with the history of the twentieth century’s most profound and extensive set of cross-cultural intellectual movements.

• The first systematic history of the most influential and hotly debated areas of literary theory, available in paperback for the first time • Coverage includes structuralism, poststructuralism, Russian formalism, semiotics, reception theory, and Rorty on deconstruction • Incorporating full bibliographies, this is the standard work of reference on its subject

Introduction Raman Selden; 1. Russian formalism Peter Steiner; Part I. Structuralism: Its Rise, Influence and Aftermath: 2. Structuralism of the Prague School Lubomír Dolezel; 3. The linguistic model and its applications Derek Attridge; 4. Semiotics Stephen Bann; 5. Narratology Gerald Prince; 6. Roland Barthes Annette Lavers; 7. Deconstruction Richard Rorty; 8. Structuralist and post-structuralist psychoanalytic and Marxist theories Celia Britton; Part II. Reader-Oriented Theories of Interpretation: 9. Hermeneutics Robert Holub; 10. Phenomenology Robert Holub; 11. Reception theory: School of Constance Robert Holub; 12. Speech act theory Peter J. Rabinowitz; 13. Other reader-oriented theories Peter J. Rabinowitz; Bibliography; Index.