Literary Theory

Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature.[1] However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of intellectual history, moral philosophy, social prophecy, and other interdisciplinary themes which are of relevance to the way humans interpret meaning. In humanities in modern academia, the latter style of scholarship is an outgrowth of critical theory and is often called simply "theory." As a consequence, t ...more

Literary Theory: An Introduction
Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Poetics
The Pleasure of the Text
Mythologies
Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature
Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory
Anatomy of Criticism
The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays
How Fiction Works
S/Z: An Essay
How to Read Literature
The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination
Aspects of the Novel
The Theory of the Novel
Ethereal by Phillip BainbridgeSeven Beyond by Stella AtriumThe Consolation of Philosophy by BoethiusPhilosophy of Evil by Lars Fredrik Händler SvendsenThe Art of War and Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy by Sun Tzu
books with ‘philosophy’ in title
253 books — 26 voters
The Road to Middle-Earth by Tom ShippeyThe Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien by J.R.R. TolkienJ.R.R. Tolkien by Tom ShippeyThe Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays by J.R.R. TolkienJ.R.R. Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter
Tolkienology
83 books — 40 voters

Anti-Tech Revolution by Theodore John KaczynskiTechnological Slavery by Theodore John KaczynskiIndustrial Society and Its Future by Theodore John KaczynskiHuman Diversity by Charles MurrayThe Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein
Sober Provocations and Perspectives
107 books — 36 voters
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John CluteArchaeologies of the Future by Fredric JamesonCritical Theory and Science Fiction by Carl Howard FreedmanThe Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of by Thomas M. DischThe Seven Beauties of Science Fiction by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr.
Science Fiction Criticism
138 books — 25 voters


Northrop Frye
It doesn't matter whether a sequence of words is called a history or a story: that is, whether it is intended to follow a sequence of actual events or not. As far as its verbal shape is concerned, it will be equally mythical in either case. But we notice that any emphasis on shape or structure or pattern or form always throws a verbal narrative in the direction we call mythical rather than historical.(p.21) ...more
Northrop Frye, Biblical and Classical Myths: The Mythological Framework of Western Culture

Hannah Arendt
I do not believe that there is any thought process possible without personal experience.
Hannah Arendt, The Portable Hannah Arendt

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