Rapaport - The Literary Theory Toolkit: A Compendium of Concepts and Methods

Preface

What we call literary criticism has traditionally been the study of literary texts by readers with special competencies in the study of writings by major authors. These competencies include detailed knowledge of the authors life and times, excellent competence in the language within which an author has written, and knowledge of disciplines relevant to an authors work, for example, religion, philosophy, or psychology. In addition, the literary critic has expertise in reading a wide range of authors from a number of different historical periods and therefore is familiar with literary conventions (standard practices), allusions (cultural references), and genres (literary types). Literary critics are also expert in the study of literary devices like metaphor, metonymy, irony, and paradox, which they may see as significant to the patterning or structure of literary works. Most importantly, however, literary critics are intuitive readers who perceive semantic and syntactic implications that escape notice by most others and use these implications to develop suggestive and coherent interpretations. In and of themselves such forms of literary critical expertise do not make up any kind of theory, since they just represent an ensemble of practices that literary critics have found useful in literary analysis.

When literary critics talk about literary theory , they are referring to a critical analytic that is aware of itself as a methodology and that is capable of self-reflexively calling its own assumptions into question. Theory has its roots in the methodological study of interpretation that goes back at least as far as Aristotles treatise Of Interpretation, though unquestionably this was hardly its inception. Interpretation theory asks the question of how we can know the difference between a true and a false interpretation, a reading that is good from one that is bad. How do we know we are construing meanings accurately? What are the limits of inferring meanings or developing textual implications? How do we know that a sentence is to be taken ironically and not straightforwardly? What if our interpretation is not authorized by the writer who has maintained a very different interpretation? And what if our interpretation uses analytical tools not known to the authors or their contemporaries? Although these are very basic questions of method, the fact is that the history of criticism and theory has not decided them once and for all.

This book can be used in two ways, (i) as a compendium of major issues and developments in literary criticism and theory that can be consulted much as one consults an encyclopedia, and (ii) as a companion to major issues in literary criticism and theory that can be read linearly in terms of units or areas. Chapter 1 is a comprehensive overview of criticism basics and those areas and trends in criticism and theory that are most relevant for students of literature today. Readers are encouraged to read it straight through from beginning to end, if what they are seeking is a reliable introduction to critical practice and the state of criticism and theory right now. That said, its sections can be read in any order, should one be interested mainly in consulting individual topics.

Chapters 2, 3, and 4 stress mainly critical tools that concern narrative, poetics, and performance, respectively. Sections in these chapters provide readers with concepts, methods, and analytics that critics have found useful for conducting analyses of each genre. Care has been taken to include some avant garde literature in order to extend our literary curriculum somewhat so that it can embrace a few works that are more rather than less difficult to interpret.