This book provides accounts of thirteen American critical schools and movements of the period from the early 1930s to the mid- 1980s. Each chapter presents a history of a specific school or movement, covering pertinent social and cultural backgrounds, main figures and texts, key philosophical and critical theories and practices and significant relations with allied and antagonistic contemporaneous movements both here and abroad.

American Literary Criticism Since the 1930s fully updates Vincent B. Leitch’s classic book, American Literary Criticism from the 30s to the 80s following the development of the American academy right up to the present day. Updated throughout and with a brand new chapter, this second edition: provides a critical history of American literary theory and practice, discussing the impact of major schools and movements examines the social and cultural background to literary research, considering the role of key theories and practices provides profiles of major figures and influential texts, outlining the connections among theorists presents a new chapter on developments since the 1980s, including discussions of feminist, queer, postcolonial and ethnic criticism. Comprehensive and engaging, this book offers a crucial overview of the development of literary studies in American universities, and a springboard to further research for all those interested in the development and study of Literature.

In this revised edition of Understanding Contemporary American Literary Theory, Michael P. Spikes adds Stanley Fish and Susan Bordo to the critics whose careers, key texts, and central assumptions he discusses in introducing readers to developments in American literary theory during the past thirty-five years. Underscoring the largely heterogeneous mix of strategies and suppositions that these critics, along with Paul de Man, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Edward W. Said, and Stephen Greenblatt, represent, Spikes offers concise analyses of their principal claims and illustrates how their works reflect a range of critical perspectives, from deconstruction, African American studies, and reader-response theory to political criticism, the new historicism, and feminism.

An invitation to mingle with Burke in the 30s and witness the development of his major works of the era

The Cambridge Companion to American Modernism provides a comprehensive and authoritative overview of American literary modernism from 1890 to 1939. These original essays by twelve distinguished scholars of international reputation offer critical overviews of the major genres, literary culture, and social contexts that define the current state of Modern American literature and cultural studies. Among the diverse topics covered are nationalism, race, gender and the impact of music and visual arts on literary modernism, as well as overviews of the achievements of American modernism in fiction, poetry and drama. The book concludes with a chapter on modern American criticism. An essential reference guide to the field, the Companion offers readers a chronology of key events and publication dates covering the first half of the twentieth century in the United States, and a bibliography of further reading organized by chapter topics.

Three extensively revised essays by Mailloux, an influential proponent of cultural studies, describe his approach in depth. Following are ten essays, nine of them written specifically for this volume, by scholars who offer various perspectives on Mailloux's ideas. Each essayist weighs the strengths and limitations of the cultural studies movement in general and Mailloux's approach in particular.