ISBN 978-0-470-67195-5

Gregory Castles Literary Theory Handbook brings his account of theory up to the minute, practically, incorporating and relating to one another the most significant developments in literary and cultural theory of the twenty-first century (cognitive theory, the new materialism, disability studies, ecocriticism and animal studies). Castle does justice to the complexity of the issues he covers (his handling of deconstruction and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory is admirable), and one has to marvel at both the impartiality of his account and the lucidity of his writing, with a clear sense throughout of his audience and of what needs to be said.

David Richter, CUNY

Comprehensive and clear, Castles Handbook is essential for students seeking accessible and thorough summaries of all of the schools of contemporary critical thought and analysis. Each chapter covers a lot of material, and each is beautifully written.

Michael Ryan, Temple University

The Literary Theory Handbook provides the ideal starting point to the subject for students at all levels, offering clarity on the history, scope and application of literary theory, and providing four distinct entryways into this vast and varied discourse.

Raising key questions about the nature of theory and literature, individual chapters offer historical, thematic, biographical, and practical perspectives on theoretical concepts, ideas and modes of practice. A chapter on the historical development of theoretical movements, trends, and ideas makes connections between and among theories across a century of development. Separate entries on major theories bring together similar theories under thematic rubrics, such as Ideology/Philosophy/History/Aesthetics and Mind/Body/Gender/Identity, and short biographical sketches provide a handy reference for key theorists and their major works. The final section of the Handbook features brief readings of literary texts including works by Shakespeare, Conrad, Woolf, Beckett, and Rushdie each informed by multiple perspectives that exemplify theoretical practice.

Gregory Castle is a professor of British and Irish literature at Arizona State University. He is author of Modernism and the Celtic Revival (2001), Reading the Modernist Bildungsroman (2006), and The Blackwell Guide to Literary Theory (2007) and has edited Postcolonial Discourses (2000) and the Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory, vol. 1 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). He has also published numerous essays on Joyce, Yeats, Wilde, and other Irish writers.

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Blackwell Literature Handbooks

This new series offers the student thorough and lively introductions to literary periods, movements, and, in some instances, authors and genres, from Anglo-Saxon to the Postmodern. Each volume is written by a leading specialist to be invitingly accessible and informative. Chapters are devoted to the coverage of cultural context, the provision of brief but detailed biographical essays on the authors concerned, critical coverage of key works, and surveys of themes and topics, together with bibliographies of selected further reading. Students new to a period of study or to a period genre will discover all they need to know to orientate and ground themselves in their studies, in volumes that are as stimulating to read as they are convenient to use.

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The British and Irish Short Story HandbookDavid Malcolm

The Crime Fiction HandbookPeter Messent

The Literary Theory HandbookGregory Castle

GREGORY CASTLE

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This edition first published 2013 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Castle, Gregory. The literary theory handbook / Gregory Castle. pages cm. (Blackwell Literature Handbooks) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-67195-5 (Pbk. : alk. paper) 1. CriticismHistoryHandbooks, manuals, etc. 2. LiteratureHistory and criticismTheory, etc.Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. PN86.C35 2013 801.9509dc23

2012050374

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Wyndham Lewis, Workshop, c.191415, oil on canvas, 765 610 mm. Tate, London. Tate, London 2013.Cover design: Richard Boxall Design Associates.

Set in 10/12.5pt Sabon by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India

1 2013

For Ralph and Donna Castle,whose encouragement and support come without condition

and

Camille Angeles-Castle, who continues to teach me the theory of love

Contents

Acknowledgments xAlphabetical Listing of Key Movements and Theories xii

Introduction 1The Nature of Literary Theory 2What is Literature? 4The Practice of Theory 8How To Use the Handbook 9

1 The Rise of Literary Theory 11Early Developments in Literary Theory 12Modernism and Formalism, 1890s1940s 18Cultural and Critical Theory, 1930s1960s 24The Poststructuralist Turn, 1960s1970s 27Culture, Gender, and History, 1980s1990s 33Postmodernism and Post-Marxism, 1980s2000s 39Posthumanism: Theory at the Fin de Sicle 44Conclusion 47

2 The Scope of Literary Theory 511 Form/Structure/Narrative/Genre 52

Formalism and Structuralism 52New Criticism 59Chicago School Neo-Aristotelian Theory 63Narrative Theory/Narratology 68Theory of the Novel 75

2 Ideology/Philosophy/History/Aesthetics 84Marxist Theory 84Critical Theory 91Post-Marxist Theory 101New Historicism/Cultural Poetics 119Postmodernism 125

Contentsviii

3 Language/Systems/Texts/Readers 142Phenomenology and Hermeneutics 142Reader-Response Theory 153Deconstruction 160Poststructuralism 167

4 Mind/Body/Gender/Identity 178Psychoanalysis 178Feminist Theory 190Gender Studies 198 Gay and Lesbian Studies 204Trauma Studies 209

5 Culture/Ethnicities/Nations/Locations 218Cultural Studies 218African American Studies 225Ethnic and Indigenous Studies 231 Chicano/a Studies 232 Native and Indigenous Studies 235 Asian American Studies 237Postcolonial Studies 242Transnationalism 254

6 People/Places/Bodies/Things 266Posthumanism 266 Evolutionary Literary Theory 278 Object-Oriented Ontologies 283 Disability Studies 290 Ecocriticism 298

3 Key Figures in Literary Theory 313Theodor Adorno (190369) 313Giorgio Agamben (1942 ) 314Louis Althusser (191890) 315Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (18951975) 316Roland Barthes (191580) 317Jean Baudrillard (19292007) 318Walter Benjamin (18921940) 319Homi Bhabha (1949 ) 320Pierre Bourdieu (19302002) 321Lawrence Buell (1939 ) 322Judith Butler (1956 ) 323Hlne Cixous (1937 ) 324Lennard Davis (1949 ) 324Teresa de Lauretis (1939 ) 325Gilles Deleuze (192595) and Flix Guattari (193092) 326Paul de Man (191983) 327Jacques Derrida (19302004) 328Terry Eagleton (1943 ) 330Frantz Fanon (192561) 330Stanley Fish (1938 ) 331

Contents ix

Michel Foucault (192684) 332Henry Louis Gates (1950 ) 333Sandra Gilbert (1936 ) and Susan Gubar (1944 ) 334Stephen Greenblatt (1943 ) 335Elizabeth Grosz (1952 ) 336Stuart Hall (1932 ) 337Donna Haraway (1944 ) 338N. Katherine Hayles (1943 ) 339bell hooks (1952 ) 340Luce Irigaray (1930 ) 341Wolfgang Iser (19262007) 342Fredric Jameson (1934 ) 343Julia Kristeva (1941 ) 344Jacques Lacan (190181) 345Bruno Latour (1947 ) 346Jean-Franois Lyotard (192498) 348J. Hillis Miller (1928