A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory (4th Edition)

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Summary: A wonderful supplement to primary theory readings
Review: For some years I have used this book, in a number of its editions, as one of the texts in my college upper-division literary theory class. Each edition is better and more inclusive than the last. Selden sorts out literary theory into its logical categories (New Criticism, structuralism, poststructuralism, cultural theories). Chapters provide useful, clearly written, and accurate summaries of fields/schools/movements and brief summaries of the works and contributions of major theorists in each. The book works particularly well in a twentieth-century theory class in conjunction with a reader in primary theory, such as the wonderful Norton Anthology of Critical Theory (first published in 2001) and a glossary of critical terms (such as the terrifically useful Oxford Dictionary of Literary Theory). My students consistently end up liking Selden's book; they usually comment on how clearly it lays out major ideas in each theoretical camp and how it helps them to read the difficult primary texts by powerhouses such as Marx, Derrida, Foucault, Cixous. The companion reader is ok, but not as useful as this summary of theoretical positions.

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Summary: Can You Put Together a Stereo?
Review: This book reads like stereo instructions! In fact, it contradicts itself more often stereo instructions. Many terms are used but not defined. Basically, if you are a student, it's impossible!

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Summary: contemporary literay confusion
Review: this is a helpful book if one is more interested in name dropping than in the clear presentation of critical approaches. the author has a knack for making the obscure even more obscure. more often than not jargon takes the place of analysis.