A Companion to Literary Theory is a collection of original essays, all by noted scholars in their field, designed to introduce the modes and ideas of contemporary literary and cultural theory.

Table of Contents

• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I: Literary Form: Narrative and Poetry
• 1 British and American New Criticism
• References
• 2 Chicago Formalism
• Aristotle and the Synolon
• Constructional Genre
• The Hypothetico‐Deductive Method
• Textual Autonomy
• Instrumental Pluralism
• The Second Generation: Booth, Rader, Sacks
• The Third and Subsequent Generations
• References
• 3 Russian Formalism
• Context
• Principles
• Distractions
• Poetry
• “Prose”
• Literary History
• Defamiliarization
• References
• 4 Structuralism and Semiotics
• The Keplerian Turn
• Structuralism(s)
• Acknowledgements
• References
• 5 Stylistics
• What is Stylistics?
• Why so Much Focus on Language?
• Who is Stylistics For?
• Stylistics as Grammar
• Selectivity
• Foregrounding, Patterning, and Iconic Aptness
• Stylistic Practice and the Return of the Reader
• Falsifiability and Standards of Proof
• Disciplinary Maturity
• When Does “Attention to Detail” Go too Far?
• References
• 6 Contemporary Narrative Theory
• Unnatural Narratology; or Narrative Theory and the Tradition of Non‐mimetic Narrative
• Fictionality; or the Borders between Fiction and Non‐fiction, and Cross‐border Traffic
• Theory of Mind or Mind‐Reading
• Feminist and Queer Narrative Theories, Intersectionality, and Critique
• Rhetorical Theory and the Narrative Communication Model
• References
• Part II: The Task of Reading
• 7 The Intention Debates
• How Long Has This Been Going On?: History
• Someone to Watch over Me: Grounding Interpretations
• You Like Potato, I Like Potahto: Two Sides of the Issue
• I Mean to Say: Intention
• The Half of It Dearie Blues: Is/Ought
• Take a Lesson from Me: Bearing
• You Are You: Readers
• Could You Use Me?: Dealings
• By Strauss: Texts
• On and On and On: Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• References
• 8 Deconstruction
• I
• II
• III
• References
• 9 Reader‐Response Theory
• Introduction
• Stylistic Mastery
• Neural Shakespeare: The Function Shift
• Martindale and Dailey (1995): Disagreement Reviewed
• Bortolussi and Dixon (2003): Literariness
• References
• 10 Empathy Studies
• Current scholarship and debates
• Narrative of the Topic
• Suggestions for Further Research
• References
• 11 Contemporary Proposals about Reading in the Digital Age
• Distant Reading and Computational Text Analysis
• Post‐Critical Reading
• Histories of Everyday Reading
• Deformative Reading
• The Contested Futures of Scholarly Reading
• References
• Part III: Literary Locations and Cultural Studies
• 12 The Location of Literature
• The Serial Delimitation of Literature
• The Location of Literature Today
• The Literary System and its Trivium
• The Literary System and the University
• References
• 13 The Verbal and the Visual
• The Problematic Legacy of Lessing
• Reading Signs
• Ekphrasis: Writing about Art
• References
• 14 Foucault and Poststructuralism
• Foucault and Poststructuralism
• The Return to Thinking Historically
• The Return of Thinking About the Subject
• The Emphasis on Difference
• The Return to Thinking Philosophically about Ethics
• References
• 15 Cultural Studies
• References
• Part IV: The Politics of Literature
• 16 Nothing If Not Determined: Marxian Criticism in History
• References
• 17 The Frankfurt School and Its Successors
• The Frankfurt School and Cultural Studies
• Conclusion
• References
• 18 Althusser
• References
• 19 New Historicism and Cultural Materialism
• References
• 20 Emmanuel Levinas and Giorgio Agamben
• Encountering Heidegger
• Levinas and Literature
• Agamben's Archaeology of Commandment
• References
• 21 Postcolonial Theory
• The Problem of Postcolonial Theory
• The Anti‐Colonial Roots of Postcolonial Thought
• From Poststructuralism to Postcolonial Theory
• References
• 22 Globalization Studies
• Introduction: What Is Globalization?
• A New Role for the Imagination in Social Life
• Globalization and Literary Studies
• Acknowledgements
• References
• Part V: Identities
• 23 Race/Literature/Theory
• References
• 24 Ethnic Studies
• Introduction
• Struggles Over Literatures
• Reading Otherwise
• Conclusion
• References
• 25 Anglophone Feminisms
• References
• 26 Gender Theory
• The Interdisciplinarity of Gender Theory
• Masculinity Studies
• Transgender Studies
• Femininities in the 1990s, Girlhood Studies
• References
• 27 Queer Theory
• Queering Gender/Sexuality
• Queering Sociality
• Critiques of Queer Theory, and Responses
• The Reach of Queer Theory
• References
• 28 Disability Studies
• Disability as an Identity
• Early Literary Disability Studies and Normalcy
• Reading Disability
• Recovering Disabled Writing
• Going Forward: Disability and Intersectionality
• References
• 29 Trauma Studies
• Starting with Freud
• Literary Trauma Theory: Caruth and the First Wave
• Pluralistic Trauma Theory: A New Model
• References
• Part VI: Bodies and Their Minds
• 30 Freudian Psychoanalytic Criticism
• References
• 31 Lacanian Psychoanalytic Criticism
• Methods for Reading Lacan
• Subject to Texts?
• Lacan's Theory of Discourse
• References
• 32 Archetypal Criticism
• References
• 33 Cognitive Literary Criticism
• Reading
• Metaphor
• Narrative and Fictional Worlds
• Empathy and Other Minds
• Imagery and the Question of Immersive Reading
• Cognitive Poetics and Poetry
• Postscript: Cognitive Historicism
• References
• Part VII: Scientific Inflections
• 34 Evolutionary Literary Theory
• The Historical Provenance and Main Contentions of Evolutionary Literary Theory
• The Institutional Position of Evolutionary Literary Scholars
• Governing Ideas in Evolutionary Biology
• The Evolution of Specifically Human Characteristics
• The Adaptive Functions of Literature and the Other Arts
• Evolutionary Literary Criticism
• The Future
• References
• 35 Ecocriticism
• Early and Middle Years
• Contentious Later Years
• Ecocriticism's Expanding Purview
• References
• 36 Cybernetics and Posthumanism
• References
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