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Global Literary Theory

An Anthology

Author: Richard Lane  

Paperback

Global Literary Theory: An Anthology comprises a selection of classic, must-read essays alongside contemporary and global extracts, providing an engaging and timely overview of literary theory. The volume is thoroughly introduced in the General Introduction and Section Introductions and each piece is contextualised within the wider sphere of global theory.

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Summary

Global Literary Theory: An Anthology comprises a selection of classic, must-read essays alongside contemporary and global extracts, providing an engaging and timely overview of literary theory. The volume is thoroughly introduced in the General Introduction and Section Introductions and each piece is contextualised within the wider sphere of global theory.

Read more

Description

Global Literary Theory: An Anthology comprises a selection of classic, must-read essays alongside contemporary and global extracts, providing an engaging and timely overview of literary theory. The volume is thoroughly introduced in the General Introduction and Part Introductions and each piece is contextualized within the wider sphere of global theory. Each part also includes annotated suggestions for further reading to help the reader navigate the extensive literature on each topic.The volume engages with the "internationalizing" of the curriculum as well as the globalization of literature and theory.

Alongside these key themes, the volume also extends its coverage to include:

  • The core topics and theorists from formalism and structuralism to postmodernism and deconstruction
  • Digital humanities and humanities computing and their relevance to globalization and literary theory
  • The religious turn in literary theory and philosophy
  • New textualities such as auto/biography, travel writing and ecocriticism
  • Oppositional texts which "write back" against the canon

In addition, the book’s Companion Website features an interactive world map incorporating biographies of every theorist in the book, as well as biographies of additional influential theorists.

Crucially, this anthology shows that ethnic, postcolonial studies and globalization are not simply niche areas of literary study but are of concern across the contemporary humanities and that new voices are always emerging, and being discovered, from around the globe. As such, this volume offers a refocusing of essential literary theory, extending the canon in line with ongoing debates concerning contemporary cultural and geographic borders.

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Critic Reviews

“"This timely and path-breaking anthology makes it irresponsible not to study critical and literary theories in a global context."”

Alexander C. Y. Huang, Recipient of the MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies

"This substantive and significant collection of literary theory brings together a wealth of a really important critical material from around the world, including but also going beyond writers who have defined the field within the Western Academy. As a result, its carefully chosen and lucidly introduced extracts provide students with an exciting and accessible way into key conceptual, political and aesthetic questions and debates concerning the study of literature and culture in a global context. Global Literary Theory is a rich, stimulating and timely anthology, ideally positioned to help frame and shape how we engage with literary studies in the twenty-first century."

Dr Paul Young, University of Exeter, UK

"In a crowded and competitive field, Richard Lane’s anthology sets itself apart from the rest by living up to its title. This is a truly global survey of theory past and present, as comprehensive, judicious and up-to-the-minute as anyone could wish for. It promises to be an indispensable field-guide to the multiform complexities of theory for many years to come. "

Dr Paul Sheehan, Macquarie University, Australia

"Responding to our rapidly changing, globalised planet, this groundbreaking anthology fulfils three crucial tasks for students and teachers. It begins to help us understand different world traditions of literary interpretation; it introduces new theories and problems for reading literature internationally; and it will start to establish a properly global literary studies."

Professor Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

"Global Literary Theory takes its promise of global coverage seriously; the anthology covers the now canonical figures of literary theory and brings them into useful and often challenging dialogue with newer voices from around the world. But this is not to say that the concept of the global gets a free pass; the valuable section on discourses of globalization, when read alongside the original selections of material on postcolonialism and race (these selections ranging from a reading of the influence of the internet in China to postmodern constructions of Islam), mean that the anthology itself practices the critical awareness it seeks to promote in students."

Dr Christopher Pittard, University of Portsmouth, UK

"Global Literary Theory is an important resource for those teaching literary criticism and cultural theory. With clear prose and well-written section introductions contextualizing the extracts, the anthology provides a complete overview of theoretical fields while also situating the essays in relationship to each other across the global conversation. The result of Lane’s arrangement is that readers are aware not just of the important essays from key theoretical movements, but are also aware of how these essays address each other and the exigencies of a global sensibility. The Further Reading recommendations that appear at the end of each section make the text familiar to those versed in literary theory and approachable for those who are not. With a study of the framework of humanism at its core, the anthology encourages readers to examine what Lane calls "re-constituted" theory through a global lens. This is a valuable anthology for those looking to revisit the traditional views of literary theory from a global perspective."

Dr Corinna McLeod, Grand Valley State University, USA

"Global Literary Theory: An Anthology is a dynamic and illuminating synthesis of the fast moving and diverse field of literary theory. It introduces and subtly contextualizes a wide range of theoretical approaches from Russian formalism to postcolonialism, queer theory and globalization theory while never losing sight of their historical matrix and ongoing dialogue. We are reminded for example that the collapse of English literature's 'civilizing mission' was the catalyst for literary studies replenishment by a variety of transformative and politicized theoretical approaches and that Derridean deconstruction cannot be thought in isolation from his liminal Algerian heritage. Much more than a synopsis, Global Literary Theory is a superb intervention into the ongoing transnational conversation that constitutes contemporary literary theory."

Dr Ned Curthoys, Australian National University, Australia


Alexander C. Y. Huang, Recipient of the MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies

"This substantive and significant collection of literary theory brings together a wealth of a really important critical material from around the world, including but also going beyond writers who have defined the field within the Western Academy. As a result, its carefully chosen and lucidly introduced extracts provide students with an exciting and accessible way into key conceptual, political and aesthetic questions and debates concerning the study of literature and culture in a global context. Global Literary Theory is a rich, stimulating and timely anthology, ideally positioned to help frame and shape how we engage with literary studies in the twenty-first century." Dr Paul Young, University of Exeter, UK

"In a crowded and competitive field, Richard Lane’s anthology sets itself apart from the rest by living up to its title. This is a truly global survey of theory past and present, as comprehensive, judicious and up-to-the-minute as anyone could wish for. It promises to be an indispensable field-guide to the multiform complexities of theory for many years to come." Dr Paul Sheehan, Macquarie University, Australia

"Responding to our rapidly changing, globalised planet, this groundbreaking anthology fulfils three crucial tasks for students and teachers. It begins to help us understand different world traditions of literary interpretation; it introduces new theories and problems for reading literature internationally; and it will start to establish a properly global literary studies." Professor Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

"Global Literary Theory takes its promise of global coverage seriously; the anthology covers the now canonical figures of literary theory and brings them into useful and often challenging dialogue with newer voices from around the world. But this is not to say that the concept of the global gets a free pass; the valuable section on discourses of globalization, when read alongside the original selections of material on postcolonialism and race (these selections ranging from a reading of the influence of the internet in China to postmodern constructions of Islam), mean that the anthology itself practices the critical awareness it seeks to promote in students." Dr Christopher Pittard, University of Portsmouth, UK

"Global Literary Theory is an important resource for those teaching literary criticism and cultural theory. With clear prose and well-written section introductions contextualizing the extracts, the anthology provides a complete overview of theoretical fields while also situating the essays in relationship to each other across the global conversation. The result of Lane’s arrangement is that readers are aware not just of the important essays from key theoretical movements, but are also aware of how these essays address each other and the exigencies of a global sensibility. The Further Reading recommendations that appear at the end of each section make the text familiar to those versed in literary theory and approachable for those who are not. With a study of the framework of humanism at its core, the anthology encourages readers to examine what Lane calls "re-constituted" theory through a global lens. This is a valuable anthology for those looking to revisit the traditional views of literary theory from a global perspective." Dr Corinna McLeod, Grand Valley State University, USA

"Global Literary Theory: An Anthology is a dynamic and illuminating synthesis of the fast moving and diverse field of literary theory. It introduces and subtly contextualizes a wide range of theoretical approaches from Russian formalism to postcolonialism, queer theory and globalization theory while never losing sight of their historical matrix and ongoing dialogue. We are reminded for example that the collapse of English literature's 'civilizing mission' was the catalyst for literary studies replenishment by a variety of transformative and politicized theoretical approaches and that Derridean deconstruction cannot be thought in isolation from his liminal Algerian heritage. Much more than a synopsis, Global Literary Theory is a superb intervention into the ongoing transnational conversation that constitutes contemporary literary theory." Dr Ned Curthoys, Australian National University, Australia

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About the Author

Richard J. Lane is a professor of English at Vancouver Island University, Canada, where he is the Director of The Literary Theory Research Group and the Seminar for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. He has written several books and articles on literary theory and has experience of teaching and presenting on literary theory at universities across the US, Canada and the UK.

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Product Details

Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd | Routledge
Published
2nd April 2013
Pages
976
ISBN
9780415783026

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$27
RRP $120.00
$92.40
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