A practical guide to advanced level english literature. The book is aimed for students of English literature and culture. Especially useful with such subjects as "Intensive Reading in British Literature" and "History of British Literature." The book consists of three main chapters: 1 - encountering literature (decribing main genres), 2 - developing your language of criticism (devoted to writing style), 3 - approaching revision and assessment (exam technical issues).
"One of the major works in the development of contemporary criticism and philosophy." -- J. Hillis Miller, Yale University
Jacques Derrida's revolutionary theories about deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, first voiced in the 1960s, forever changed the face of European and American criticism.
Striking out at the conception of criticism as restricted to mere opinion or ritual gesture, Northrop Frye wrote this magisterial work proceeding on the assumption that criticism is a structure of thought and knowledge in its own right. In four brilliant essays on historical, ethical, archetypical, and rhetorical criticism, employing examples of world literature from ancient times to the present, Frye reconceived literary criticism as a total history rather than a linear progression through time.
The chronology tracks the evolution of fantasy from the origins of literature to the 21st century. The introduction explains the nature of the impulses creating and shaping fantasy literature, the problems of its definition and the reasons for its changing historical fortunes.
'Sir Frank Kermode's effortless learning, lucid intelligence and wry, self-deprecating style prove that, at its best, literary criticism itself is a lively art.' - Al Alvarez 'In this extremely important book of speculative and scholarly criticism, Mr Kermode is setting out to redefine the notion of the Romantic tradition, especially in relation to English poetry and criticism.' - Times Literary Supplement
