I want to develop a basic understanding of literary theory and its history/evolution and thought this might be a good place to begin. Am I making an awful mistake?
Norton Anthology is usually accepted as the gold standard, but the Johns Hopkins has a very good reputation as well. Just note it's more of an encyclopedia (organized alphabetically) as opposed to the Norton, which traces major theorists chronologically.
The Johns Hopkins also doesn't include excerpts, but is rather just essays outlining major theorists + some general contextualizing and interpretive information.
>>7609625
Thank you, the Norton Anthology is exactly what I was looking for.
These were posted the other day:
Abrams - The Deconstructive Angel
Barthes - Death of the Author
Benjamin - The Storyteller
Derrida - Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
Foucault - What is An Author
Jakobson - Linguistics and Poetics
Miller - The Critic as Host
Orwell - Politics and the English Language
Schopenhauer - On Authorship and Style
Wimsatt - The Intentional Fallacy
http://www18.zippyshare.com/v/iWrNbwkv/file.html
With these orders:
Historically:
Schopenhauer - On Authorship and Style
Benjamin - The Storyteller
Orwell - Politics and the English Language
Wimsatt - The Intentional Fallacy
Jakobson - Linguistics and Poetics
Derrida - Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
Barthes - Death of the Author
Foucault - What is An Author
Abrams - The Deconstructive Angel
Miller - The Critic as Host
Thematically:
I Structuralist, Post-structuralist, Linguistics
Jakobson - Linguistics and Poetics
Barthes - Death of the Author
Wimsatt - The Intentional Fallacy
II Deconstruction:
Derrida - Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences
Abrams - The Deconstructive Angel
Miller - The Critic as Host
III Psychoanalysis:
Schopenhauer - On Authorship and Style
IV Politics, Ideology, Cultural History:
Benjamin - The Storyteller
Foucault - What is An Author
Orwell - Politics and the English Language
>>7609625
Not OP, but was just wondering, the first or second edition? The second is much more expensive on Amazon, so do you think the first edition is good enough?
>>7609752
Yes, especially if you're just looking for intro/overview. It's not like shit that's a few hundred years old is gonna go away in the ten years between editions. The differences/cuts/removals/additions in excerpts are very much "academic" and shouldn't matter unless you're a professor teaching a college course.
>>7609683
Thank you. I'll most likely end up reading through the Norton Anthology and then return to these once I have some orientation.
