Understanding modern literary theory is a challenge even for the erudite individual. The Smart Student's Guide to Modern Literary Theory will clear away most of the jargon and convoluted prose found in essays and texts on theory. If you need detailed help on theories like deconstruction, Marxism, feminism, Russian Formalism, structuralism, archetypal criticism, postmodernism, New Criticism, phenomenology, and Reader-Response criticism, this book will prove invaluable to literature majors (especially those taking a course in Literary Theory), and students of history and philosophy. More than thirty theorists are covered, including but not limited to) T. Adorno, L. Althusser, M. Bakhtin, R. Barthes, J. Baudrillard, M. Beardsley, W. Benjamin, H. Cixous, S. de Beauvoir, P. de Man, J. Derrida, F. de Saussure, S. Fish, M. Foucault, N. Frye, H. Gadamer, M. Heidegger, E. Husserl, L. Irigaray, W. Iser, J. Kristeva, J. Lacan, C-L. Strauss, J-F. Lyotard, K. Marx, and V. Shklovsky. Each of these theorists is introduced in a Context that places him/her in a continuum of history, philosophy, literature, and politics. A Summary of chosen well-anthologized essays and excerpted chapters follows that highlights the text on a near paragraph by paragraph basis. Next is an Analysis that provides a full linguistic, stylistic, and logical interpretation. (this is the part that your professors will be surprised that you know). Finally there is a wrap-up Essay Question of the type that you might find on an exam or can use as a starting point for a research project. And of course there is a lengthy multi-paragraph response. The prose style is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate students. High school and college/university instructors will find this book as a useful aid for lesson planning. Finally, you need not even be a student enrolled in a formal course to benefit. For those who are out of school and have an intellectual bent, you will discover just what all the hoopla is about the next time someone else starts discussing theory and you want to join in. Now you can. The Smart Student's Guide to Modern Literary Theory is no easy read. It is indeed a challenge, but the knowledge contained herein is part of what it means to know why and how literature affects us the way it does.
Martin Asiner has taught English and literature on both the community college and high school level for more than twenty-five years. He has authored two other books in the Smart Student's Guide series: Really Hard Classic Essays and the GRE in Literature Test. He is now working on a prequel to modern literary theory; this book will cover theory from Plato and Aristotle all the way to Hegel, Kant, and Nietzsche. In his spare time, Ms. Asiner is a frequent review writer on theory and literature for Amazon.
