The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism

Needed this for reference material. Suited the need and use.

This is the DEFINITIVE anthology for any student of English (modernism), Comparative Literature, Philosophy (structural and post-structural), Sociology, or Psychoanalytics. It has pretty much every author you can possibly think of, and then some... My only complaint is that the pages are way too thin, almost translucent. Also, the text is incredibly tiny. But with how much material they packed into this thing, I can understand the tradeoffs for keeping the book itself to a manageable size.

This is a comprehensive, very well-presented anthology of theory and criticism. The selections are presented chronologically, but there is also a table of contents that arranges things in terms of different movements and schools. As with all Norton anthologies, this one s well annotated and introduced; additionally, each theorist and critic has his or her own introduction, along with a helpful primary and secondary bibliography. My only gripe is that the print is very small, enough so that I'll need to buy a pair of over-the-counter reading glasses to read through without straining. That's not a major issue, however, in an otherwise spectacular anthology of a vital subject area for any student of literature.

It's a good anthology and if you buy it it will help you so I do recommend it. But it wastes about half of its pages on 80s postmodernism so beware of that. Leitch's introductions totally disses certain authors he disapproves of politically and is over-generous to other theorists who really aren't that important. I like N. Katherine Hayles but honestly she's not as influential as William Empson or Jacques Derrida, yet gets as much if not more page space. Leitch's introduction to Harold Bloom is very ungenerous, ignoring his importance as a theorist and seizing upon a few controversial aspects of his personality. There's a lot more here. Thomas Aquinas gets like 4 pages. This is a crime against education, really. It should almost be called "20th century cultural theory" due to its emphasis on 80s postmodern weirdos no one really reads anymore. Buy it and learn.

The best thing about this book is the short introduction to each author and their work before reading their essay(s). Inculded in this introduction is a brief summary of what you are about to read, so when you are trying to figure out what the heck Hegel is taking about when he writes "being-for-self for itself", you've already got that broken down into plain understandable terms in the introduction. Best book for literary criticism EVER!

The book was a required text for my theory class. It's a great book! Very comprehensive and understandable! I am very satisfied with the seller! It was such a pleasure to purchase this from him. He was really cooperative, considerate and good at keeping his promise. He actually saved me from getting into trouble with my professor.

First off, this book is HUGE. I am glad it is the only one I have to carry on days when I have its respective class. The content is great- there are thousands and thousands of pages of knowledge condensed into this (not so little, but compared to the number of titles included) little book. However, I rented this book out for the semester, and received a copy that was "Used-Very Good" although, that's putting it graciously, Amazon. There are bends on the cover, I think someone spilled coffee on it at one point, but there is no highlighting or page tears. I will probably be charged for this, as I don't think that is considered "Used-Very Good" and normally would be extremely upset, but this book is pretty great to have around.

I purchased this book for use in a university course entitled "History of Literary Criticism and Theory". I have never been more simultaneously confused and fascinated than I am while deciphering Hegel, Marx, Aristotle, and other masters of the tradition of Western literary thought. For any serious student of English, History, Philosophy, Anthropology, or Art, this collection of works is an absolute necessity.

It gives a good overview. I find it especially helpful that they have alternative table of contents listing content according to schools and movements, genres and subjects. Excellent companion if you are a student overwhelmed by theory.

Bought this for the best class ever. Lit Theory is my jam.

El envío llegó un día antes de lo previsto. Sin embargo, el libro estaba manchado por el lado (en la foto se ve mejor de lo que es) y las esquinas como si se hubieran golpeado. No sé si es cosa del transporte o del manejo que se habrá hecho de él, pero dado el precio, me ha decepcionado un poco que no esté en óptimas condiciones.

Extraordinary. The book I was dreaming to own. Now it's a jewel in my book rack

Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism: Second Edition. This is a highly useful book for any students of literature, critical theory, philosophy, anthropology, cultural studies, media or history. Whilst it does focus mainly upon literature, it contains excerpts about a huge number of topics. As potential buyers are unable to see the contents, included below is a complete list of theoreticians' work contained within the anthology: Georgias of Leontini, Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, Augustine of Hippo, Moses Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas, Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Christine De Pizan, Joachim Du Bellay, Giacopo Mazzoni, Sir Philip Sydney, Pierre Corneille, John Dryden, Aphra Behn, Giambattista Vico, Joseph Addison, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Edmund Burke, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich Von Schiller, Mary Wollstonecraft, Germaine Necker De Stael, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Hegel, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Marx and Engels, Charles Baudelaire, Matthew Arnold, Walter Pater, Stephanie Mallarme Henry James, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, Sigmund Freud, Ferdinand De Saussure, W.E.B Du Bois, Leon Trotsky, Virginia Woolf, Gyorgy Lukacs, Boris Eichenbaum, T.S Eliot, John Crowe Ransom, Martin Heidegger, Antonio Gramsci, Zora Neale Hurston, Erich Aurbach, Walter Benjamin, Mikhail M. Bakhtin, Horkheimer and Adorno, Edmund Wilson, Roman Jakobson, Jacques Lacan, Langston Hughes, Jean-Paul Sartre, Cleanth Brooks, William K. Wimsatt Jr. and Monroe C. Beardsley, Simone De Beauvoir, Claude Levi-Strauss J.L Austin, Northrop Frye, Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser, Paul De Man, C.D Narasimhaiah, Irving Howe, Hans Robert Jauss, Raymond Williams, Frantz Fanon, Deleuze and Guattari, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Wolfgang Iser, Hayden White, Jean Baudrillard, Jurgen Habermas, Adrienne Rich, Chinua Achebe, Adunis Harold Bloom, Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Derrida, Zehou Li, Richard Ohmann, Stuart Hall, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Fredric Jameson, Edward W. Said, Monique Wittig, Benedict Anderson, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Helene Cixous, Gerald Graff, Stanley E. Fish, Ngugi Wa Thiong, Taban Lo Liyong and Henry Owuor-Anyumba, Paula Gunn Allen, Tzvetan Todorov, Karatani Kojin, Annette Kolodny, Julia Kristeva, Laura Mulvey, Gloria Anzaldua, Gayatri Anzaldua, Barbara Chrisian, Terry Eagleton, Stephen J. Greenblatt, N. Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway, Barbara Smith, Susan Bordo, Barbara Johnson, Bruno Latour, Martha C. Nussbaum, Bonnie Zimmerman, Homi K. Bhabha, Gayle Rubin, Slavoj Zizek, Henry Louis Gates Jr. Franco Moretti, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Dick Hebdige, Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels, Bell Hooks, Lisa Lowe, Judith Butler, Paul Gilroy, Andrew Ross, Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Judith Halberstam. Obviously, some excerpts are covered in more detail than others, as the book is only approximately 2700 pages long and therefore doesn't contain the full publications by each of these figures, merely snippets and excerpts. However, a good selection from each is included, as is a quick preface for each individual containing a holistic overview of their biographical information and theoretical contributions to their respective fields. Topics include (at random) 'The Defence and Enrichment of the French Language', 'A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas', 'Culture and Anarchy', 'The Defence of Poesy', 'The Archetypes of Literature', 'The Signification of the Phallus', 'Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness', 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', 'A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Social Feminism in the 1980s' to name but a few. Translations are presented well. I personally enjoyed the opportunity to experience some new (and in some cases improved) translations of familiar works, particularly a selection of wonderfully eloquent excerpt from Nietzsche's 'Birth of Tragedy' translated by Ronald Spiers which was a refreshing change from my Kauffmann and Hollingdale editions. The book itself is printed upon unfortunately cheap (bible-type) paper which does not highlight particularly well. However, with the lighter colours such as orange and yellow it is more than possible to highlight on any page. The pages do crumple and fold somewhat readily, although some might suggest that a well loved book needs a little wear and tear. This would perhaps be my single criticism of the book. However, as a particularly mobile student, I've lugged mine all over the place and as yet it has not been rendered damaged. I can imagine rain playing havoc with the pages. The binding is nice and hard, and somewhat stylish - pure white with red text. Included is a dust-jacket. Overall this book is excellent, and I would thoroughly recommend it to any student considering further education. It can't ever hope to replace original texts of course, but either as an introduction or a handy collection for easy reference, it does hold a vast selection of real gems. Minor personal quibble would be a lack of work from Jung (which was included in the previous edition, but sadly not this) or Goethe/Schopenhauer, yet selection is of course a personal taste. 9/10: deserves five stars rather than four.