An Introduction To Literature, Criticism And Theory (Paperback)

Critically, literary theory is a core subject in the study of literature. but theory— especially when it takes the form of ‘-isms’—can often be intimidating or boring for students. bennett & Royle have avoided simply giving potted summaries of ‘-isms’ and instead present brief essays on a range of key critical concepts, all of which have more or less familiar names. These concepts are put into practice through readings of particular literary texts.

Salient Features
* A new chapter on Film. This chapter explores the ways in which literature helps us to think about film, and, correspondingly, how studying film helps us to think about literature.
* A new chapter on Creative Writing .
* A new chapter on the Mutant: exploring general issues of mutation and mutability, including environmental issues, genetic engineering and cloning.
* A new chapter on War: exploring the questions 'what is war?', 'what is war literature?' and 'in what ways is literary or cultural theory itself at war?'
* All existing chapters updated and revised in light of recent developments in the field.
* Updated and expanded further reading sections.

Table of Contents
* The beginning
* Readers and reading
* The author
* The text and the world
* The uncanny
* Monuments
* Narrative
* Character
* Voice
* Figures and tropes
* Creative writing
* Laughter
* The tragic
* History
* Me
* Ghosts
* Moving pictures
* Sexual difference
* God
* Ideology
* Desire
* Queer
* Suspense
* Racial difference
* The colony
* Mutant
* The performative
* Secrets
* The postmodern
* Pleasure
* War
* The end