Critical Theory Today : A User-Friendly Guide (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities)

Rating:
Summary: Taking media seriously
Review: Prof. Tyson's text is a worthy companion to Mcluhan, Chomsky and even Joseph Campbell. The idea that one can find a "skeleton key" for literature is certainly not a new one, but forging your own key has become deliciously less difficult now that Lois Tyson's book is available. Don't like The Great Gatsby, that's okay, apply lit. theory to any available piece of writing, music, art...anything. That's the beauty of the whole process of critical discernment. The question of "what makes good art?" is always relevant, and now a substantial answer may be esier to come by. I return to this book every time I encounter a new concept in psych., sociology, philosophy...it applies to everything. Literature is only the begining.

Rating:
Summary: This would make an excellent text for a Philosophy class.
Review: This is an amazing work. Prof. Tyson brings together, in one volume, the many seemingly conflicting currents in the difficult field of critical theory and shows, more often than not, how each can complement others and deepen our reading of a work of art. This approach is brilliantly illustrated by use of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I will certainly use this book the next time I teach a course in philosophy and literature. It is written in a style accessible to undergraduates as well as graduate students and, quite honestly, most faculty I know could benefit from reading it carefully. I recommend it unreservedly to anyone interested in this field--and that, I think, is a lot of people.

Rating:
Summary: a model of lucidity and comprehensiveness
Review: This work is true to its sub-title: "a User-Friendly Guide." Most textbooks on critical theory are exercises in jargon and (self-) mystification. Little is made clear except the notion that talk about literature is the preserve of an initiate community. Tyson's book is a refreshing break with usual practices. First, because the author knows that to understand something means that one can restate it in other terms, terms that make difficult concepts available to a large audience. Second, because the author is a superb practical critic who ends each chapter of the book with an application of the theory considered to Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY. Each interpretation is illustrative, original, and provocative. Two purposes are thereby served: (1) readers get a clear sense of how each theory under discussion "works" when theories are joined with careful, sensitive reading rather than dogmatic application (as is so often the case); (2) a larger understanding of Fitzgerald's novel is evolved and through it an understanding of how a variety of critical theories might be usefully combined. Again, this is a nice contrast to the usual practice in the profession--where most professors latch onto one theory, use it dogmatically to generate "interpretations," and then oppose their theory to other theories. Tyson's book patiently constructs another posssibility: that competence in many theories is desirable because it offers us the possibility of developing an understanding of literature that builds toward a genuine community of interpreters. I should add that a further quality of the book is the number and range of theories that Tyson presents--14. Most texts offer at best 4 or 5. The energy and work that has gone into this text is remarkable. Tyson has read widely--and sympathetically. She is never taken in by jargon or guilty of it. What we have here is a work of uncommon clarity--the best introductory text of its kind, a work suitable for a wide range of graduate and undergraduate courses in theory and its applications.

Rating:
Summary: a model of lucidity and comprehensiveness
Review: This work is true to its sub-title: "a User-Friendly Guide." Most textbooks on critical theory are exercises in jargon and (self-) mystification. Little is made clear except the notion that talk about literature is the preserve of an initiate community. Tyson's book is a refreshing break with usual practices. First, because the author knows that to understand something means that one can restate it in other terms, terms that make difficult concepts available to a large audience. Second, because the author is a superb practical critic who ends each chapter of the book with an application of the theory considered to Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY. Each interpretation is illustrative, original, and provocative. Two purposes are thereby served: (1) readers get a clear sense of how each theory under discussion "works" when theories are joined with careful, sensitive reading rather than dogmatic application (as is so often the case); (2) a larger understanding of Fitzgerald's novel is evolved and through it an understanding of how a variety of critical theories might be usefully combined. Again, this is a nice contrast to the usual practice in the profession--where most professors latch onto one theory, use it dogmatically to generate "interpretations," and then oppose their theory to other theories. Tyson's book patiently constructs another posssibility: that competence in many theories is desirable because it offers us the possibility of developing an understanding of literature that builds toward a genuine community of interpreters. I should add that a further quality of the book is the number and range of theories that Tyson presents--14. Most texts offer at best 4 or 5. The energy and work that has gone into this text is remarkable. Tyson has read widely--and sympathetically. She is never taken in by jargon or guilty of it. What we have here is a work of uncommon clarity--the best introductory text of its kind, a work suitable for a wide range of graduate and undergraduate courses in theory and its applications.