Critical terms for literary study

Since its publication in 1990, Critical Terms for Literary Study has become a landmark introduction to the work of literary theory - giving tens of thousands of students an unparalleled encounter with what it means to do theory and criticism. Significantly expanded, this new edition features six new chapters that confront, in different ways, the growing understanding of literary works as cultural practices.

These six new chapters are "Popular Culture," "Diversity," "Imperialism/Nationalism," "Desire," "Ethics," and "Class," by John Fiske, Louis Menand, Seamus Deane, Judith Butler, Geoffrey Galt Harpham, and Daniel T. O'Hara, respectively. Each new essay adopts the approach that has won this book such widespread acclaim: each provides a concise history of a literary term, critically explores the issues and questions the term raises, and then puts theory into practice by showing the reading strategies the term permits.

Representation / W.J.T. Mitchell -- Structure / John Carlos Rowe -- Writing / Barbara Johnson -- Discourse / Paul A. Boveþ -- Narrative / J. Hillis Miller -- Figurative language / Thomas McLaughlin -- Performance / Henry Sayre -- Author / Donald E. Pease -- Interpretation / Steven Mailloux -- Intention / Annabel Patterson -- Unconscious / Francıois Meltzer -- Determinacy/indeterminacy / Gerald Graff -- Value/evaluation / Barbara Herrnstein Smith -- Influence / Louis A. Renza -- Rhetoric / Stanley Fish -- Culture / Stephen Greenblatt -- Canon / John Guillory -- Literary history / Lee Patterson -- Gender / Myra Jehlen -- Race / Kwame Anthony Appiah -- Ethnicity / Werner Sollors -- Ideology / James H. Kavanagh -- Popular culture / John Fisher -- Diversity / Louis Menand -- Imperialism/nationalism / Seamus Deane -- Desire / Judith Butler -- Ethics / Geoffrey Galt Harpham -- Class / Daniel T. O'Hara -- In place of an afterword : someone reading / Frank Lentricchia.