In Search of Authority: A Beginner's Introduction to Literary Theory

by Stephen Bonnycastle

Book Overview

This revised and expanded edition contains new chapters on: postmodernism, new historicism, postcolonial criticism, multiculturalism, and the role of theory in literary studies. It has new sections on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0921149808
• ISBN13: 9780921149804
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Broadview Pr
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

What makes this book so good...

...is that it takes on an immense and complicated subject from the point of view of one person navigating his way through the field in a logical and straightforward way. Bonnycastle is clear about his own critical outlook and that is just one of the ways in which he creates context--transforming what could be countless and disparate stars in the sky into a logical sequence that holds together nearly like a narrative. I never thought I could understand the various approaches this quickly, and what's more, remember large chunks of the highly specialized vocabulary, but within Bonnycastle's structure, these things seem to fit together almost intuitively. I think this book should be required reading for Literature majors, or anyone thinking about graduate school in literature, creative writing, rhetoric or composition.

It could have been confusing . . .

. . . but it wasn't. Bonnycastle presents a plethora of modern forms of literary criticism (e.g., structuralism, deconstruction, new historicism, etc.) in a clear and enlightening manner. His use of examples are, in my opinion, superb. As an undergraduate English lit major, I appreciate his well-written guide to what could have been a depressing and frustrating study of literary theory.