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The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory

 
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The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory 
by Michael Ryan, Gregory Castle, Robert Eaglestone, M. Keith Booker (Editors)
Hardcover: 1544 pages
Published: January 25, 2011
ISBN-10: 1405183128
ISBN-13: 978-1405183123

The word “theory” derives from the Greek word for vision. A theory proposes ways of seeing or envisioning the world that adds to our knowledge of it. In the physical sciences, a theory is a proposed explanation of the world that has to be confirmed through research and investigation. Theories about literature and culture are not that different. They explain the cultural world and they guide research in certain directions.

In this encyclopedia, you will encounter a rich variety of theoretical terms and ideas. Some will appear to you to be unimpeachably true, while others will only seem debatably so. That is in part because the study of human culture is in flux, moving slowly away from idealist philosophy and religion and toward science and history, and in part because cultural reality is complex in much the same way that physical reality is, bearing within it both the chemistry of emotion and the physics of social power, the biology of evolutionary imperatives and the architecture of human institutions.

The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory is a comprehensive resource for the reader who wants to explore the rich tradition of theoretical approaches to culture and its artifacts. Though literary theory dominates the approaches explored in volumes I and II, the broader issues of culture mentioned above will be found throughout, for the techniques and strategies described in the entries on theoretical approaches to literary can be used in analysis of other cultural artifacts. Conversely, the approaches in volume III, while focused largely on things like popular media, music, fashion, and new modes of representation, can be usefully applied to literary texts.



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